Prunus serrulata - Japanese cherry

This Japanese cherry grows in MMU’s campus – All saints park. The tree thrives in sunlight, and can tolerate most soils. It is a small to medium sized deciduous tree and has a purple-brown bark, ringed by horizontal lines of prominent lenticels. It grows white or pink flowers in clusters of 2-4, opening just before the leaves. The Japanese cherry is a pendulous garden tree – and centuries of breeding and selection has now meant that the modern trees are very different from their wild ancestors, which are rarely seen.