Higan Cherry               PROO-nus sub-hir-TEL-la

• Deciduous tree, can be 50-60 ft (15-18 m) high in its native habitat, shoots slender whip-like, pubescent.  Trunk thick, bark eventually gray brown.  Leaves alternate, simple, ovate, 3-8 cm long, about 2.5 cm wide, tip acuminate, margin sharply and often doubly serrate, about 10 vein pairs, lustrous dark green above, sparsely pubescent on veins below.  Flowers in small clusters of 2-5, appear before the leaves, calyx tube pubescent, purple-red, bulging at the base, each flowers about 2.5 cm wide, petals pale pink to white, more or less distinctly incised, style longer than stamens.  Fruit oval-rounded, 9 mm long, purple-black when ripe.
• Sun.  Not usually cultivated, selections and cultivars more often planted.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 4     Native to Japan.
• subhirtella: somewhat hairy