Akebono Yoshino Cherry               PROO-nus yed-o-EN-sis

• Broadleaf deciduous tree, 25 ft (8 m) high, spreading to an equal width.  Leaves alternate, simple, oval, 6-10 cm long, 4-6.5 cm wide, doubly serrate, dark green above.  Flowers a soft pink, single, (although some references, Dirr, p. 666, list it as double or semi-double).
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Introduced about 1925 by the W.B. Clarke Nursery in San Jose, California.
• The parentage of the original Prunus × yedoensis hybrid is unclear (sometimes given as P. subhirtella × P. speciosa).
• The species (Prunus × yedoensis) apparently constitutes the majority of the flowering cherry trees of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., where 900 were planted in 1912.  They were a gift of the mayor of Tokyo.  The flowers of P. × yedoensis are a light pink in the bud, but almost white when expanded.  In the 1930s, William Clarke of the W.B. Clarke Nursery in San Jose, California, gave a seedling selection of P. × yedoensis called Akebono (meaning daybreak in Japanese) for planting around the Tidal Basin.  The flowers of 'Akebono' are soft-pink.  'Akebono' is named 'Amerika' in Japan (Kuitert, 1999).
• A weeping form of the Prunus × yedoensis is also available ('Shidare Yoshino', 'Pendula').
• Oregon State Univ. campus: southwest corner Memorial Union.