| General Description | It is a deciduous, small sized flowering cherry tree with large, doubly serrated, and coloured leaves in autumn. The flowers often appear on the bare branches before the leaves emerge, and its leaves are bright green colour when they emerge in spring, changing to dark green in summer, and turning bronze during autumn. |
| ID Characteristic | The plant develops small cherries that follow ripen to red, and then turn black (Louisiana State University, 2021). It has pinkish-red, bell shaped clusters of flowers which appear in late winter to early spring, and its flowers often pop up on the bare branches before the leaves emerge. The leaves are simple, alternate, ovate, lustrous dark green with a slightly curved toothed margin. Young branches have shiny bark with prominent vertical lenticels. |
| Shape | Upright with a spreading rounded crown. |
| Landscape | It can be used as a quite decorative plant as its pink flowers appear in spring while other trees are often still dormant. The plant is usually planted as an occasional accent or as a specimen, and it makes a good addition to shrub borders, as well as it is suitable for planting around patios or decks. The American Horticultural Society claims that even though ornamental cherries are cultivated primarily for their flowers that create a mass of bloom, these plants have other ornamental characteristics to extend their interest beyond the flowering season, such as attractive autumn foliage and coloured bark, which makes flowering cherries like Taiwan Cherry superb specimen trees for small and large gardens. |
| Propagation | Its seeds require 2 to 3 months cold stratification and is best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe. Stored seed should be sown in a cold, safe frame as early in the year as possible. The seed can be rather slow, sometimes taking 18 months to germinate . |
| Cultivation | It needs loam or sand soil, with soil pH very acidic to slightly Alkaline. The plant is easy growing and requires full sun to partial sun. Prunus species can grow in light shade, but they tend to flower less, which makes full sun ideal for this plant. This plant grows at a moderate rate, and it does best with regular irrigation and well-drained soil. When it comes to tolerance, this plant is frost hardy, and it is tolerant of warm and cold climates, and low to medium rainfall. |
| Pests | Between the common diseases there is Brown Rot, caused by Monilinia spp., and Root Rot caused by various soil-borne Phytophthora spp.
Susceptible to Lymantria dispar (Gypsy Moth) and Popillia japonica (Japanese Beetle). |
| Notable Specimens | Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, United States of America. |
| Habitat | It is widely distributed forests in Taiwan at 500 m to 2,000 m of altitude, and in China it is found in forests in ravines, as well as in forest margins at 100 m to 1,300 m above the sea level. |
| Bark/Stem Description | According to Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, the bark is “blackish brown, branchlets are brown to purplish brown and young branchlets are green and hairy.” Young branches have shiny bark with prominent vertical lenticels. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | Leaves emerge deep rose, around 2 cm diameter flowers appear 2 to 6 together on 1 cm to 2 cm long pedicels that arise from a 2.5 cm to 4 cm long peduncle. Moreover, the calyx tube is also deep rose and offers colour after the petals have abscised. |
| Leaf Description | The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate or slightly obovate, 6.5 cm to 11.5 cm long, 2.5 cm to 4.5 cm wide, slender-pointed, broadly wedge-shaped to slightly heart-shaped at the base, margins regularly set with fine forward-pointing or slightly incurved teeth, lustrous dark green, 6 to 8 vein pairs, glabrous; petiole is 1.3 cm to 2 cm long. |
| Flower Description | The deep rose, around 2 cm diameter flowers appear 2 to 6 together on 1 cm to 2 cm long pedicels that arise from a 2.5 cm to 4 cm long peduncle. This species is one of the earliest of the cherry trees to flower, with bell shaped clusters of flowers beginning in early spring or as early as late winter |
| Fruit Description | The fruits are red, 1.3 cm long and about 1 cm wide. These shiny and scarlet fruits are very popular with birds. Fruiting time occurs in the winter, spring, or summer. |
| Colour Description | Leaves are bright green colour when they emerge in spring, changing to dark green in summer, and turning bronze during autumn.
The plant has strong, polished, reddish-brown trunk. The cherries fruit small green, turning red and then black. |
| Texture Description | Medium texture, as the plant has a mottled, light gray, and smooth bark. |