''Prunus'' 'Kanzan' (''

Prunus serrulata ''Prunus serrulata'' or Japanese cherry is a species of cherry tree that grows naturally in Japan, China, and Korea, and it also refers to a cultivar produced from ''Prunus speciosa'' (Oshima cherry), a cherry tree endemic in Japan.Toshio Katsu ...

'' 'Kanzan'. syn. ''

Prunus lannesiana ''Prunus serrulata'' or Japanese cherry is a species of cherry tree that grows naturally in Japan, China, and Korea, and it also refers to a cultivar produced from ''Prunus speciosa'' (Oshima cherry), a cherry tree endemic in Japan.Toshio Kat ...

'' 'Kanzan', ''Cerasus'' Sato-zakura Group 'Sekiyama' Koidz,Classification and Morphological Identification of Cherry Blossoms.
Toshio Katsuki (2017). Kwanzan or Sekiyama, Japanese 関山) is a

flowering cherry A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

. It was developed in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as a result of multiple interspecific hybrids based on the

Oshima cherry ''Prunus speciosa'', the Oshima cherry, Japanese オオシマザクラ (Oshima zakura), is native to Izu Ōshima island and the Izu Peninsula on Honshū near Tokyo, Japan.Bean, W. J. (1980). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 8t ...

.Toshio Katsuki (2015). ''Sakura'' p.93 pp.103-104.

Iwanami Shoten is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo.Louis Frédéric, ''Japan Encyclopedia'', Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 409. Iwanami Shoten was founded in 1913 by Iwanami Shigeo. Its first major publication was Natsume Sōseki's novel ''Ko ...

. It is a deciduous tree that grows to between high with an spread. Young trees have a vase-shaped habit that becomes more spreading into maturity. In winter they produce red buds, opening to diameter deep-pink double flowers. The trees, which are usually propagated by

chip budding Chip budding is a grafting technique. A chip of wood containing a bud is cut out of scion with desirable properties (tasty fruit, pretty flowers, etc.). A similarly shaped chip is cut out of the rootstock, and the scion bud is placed in the cut ...

grafting Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

, prefer a well-drained location in full sun. 'Kanzan' has pink petals, which are thought to have unexpectedly inherited the characteristics of the white Oshima cherry. The petals of the common Oshima cherry are white, but in rare cases, the petals are slightly pink due to the effect of

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart gave the name Anthokyan to a chemical compo ...

, a

biological pigment Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes, are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments. Many biol ...

, and the petals are sometimes dark pink due to exposure to low temperature just before the flowers fall. The pink color of the Oshima cherry is generally suppressed in the wild, but it is thought that a mutation occurred during selection breeding to produce pink individuals, and then kanzan was produced. 'Kanzan' is the most popular Japanese cherry tree cultivar for cherry blossom viewing in Europe and North America. Compared with Yoshino cherry, a representative Japanese cultivar, it is popular because it grows well even in cold regions, is small and easy to plant in the garden, and has large flowers and deep pink petals. In the city of

Bonn, Germany The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, there is a row of cherry trees where 300 'kanzan' trees were planted in the late 1980s. In Western countries, 'Pink Perfection' and 'Royal Burgundy' originating from Kanzan have been created.Toshio Katsuki. (2018) ''Sakura no Kagaku (Science of Cherry Blossoms)''. pp.40-42 SB Creative. Kirschblüte.
Bundesstadt Bonn.

References

Kanzan Ornamental plant cultivars Cherry blossom {{Prunus-stub