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sula, with very similar cherries in central China and Taiwan as well. It is called Edo-higan or Edo-higan-zakura in Japan, which means ''the equinox cherry from Edo," and was exported as higan-zakura at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is one of the earliest cherries to flower, and it was grown often in the gardens of Edo, the old name for Tokyo. It was not known in ancient Japan as a wild or "mountain" cherry. In the remote countryside one comes across the folk name uba-higan, or uba-zakura, which means "old woman's cherry." One explanation is that the bare leafless twigs on which the flowers are set resemble the toothless mouth of an old woman. An ancient folk practice forms the real explanation of the name: in poor regions of agricultural northern Japan, old, weak and "worthless" women were carried to remote mountains in times of bad harvests and famine, leaving their fate to the gods, and saving a mouth to fill in the village. Prunus pendula f. ascendens lives to an old age. Some famous trees are reportedly three to four hundred years old and by legend even a thousand or more. It is not surprising that the trees with their black and heavy limbs holding up an umbrellashaped crown of flowers inspired legends and lore. The phantasmal trees reminded people of the female ancestors who were left behind and were called uba-zakura. Many old trees are now designated as natural monuments. The species shows variability in flower color and in tree form. Weeping forms are found in the wild as well as ascending forms. From the weeping form the species was described by the Russian botanist Carl Johann Maximowicz (18271891) in 1893 as Prunus pendula, before the more common, ascending form. The species crosses freely with P. apetala, P. incisa, P. sargentii, P. serrulata var. pubescens, and P. serrulata var. spontanea wherever regions of distribution overlap. Prunus Ă—yedoensis is a hybrid of the Edo-higan cherry (P. pendula f. ascendens) and the Oshima cherry (P. serrulata var. speciosa). Prunus Ă—subhirtella is a hybrid of the Edohigan cherry (P. pendula f. ascendens) and the Fuji cherry (P. incisa). The weeping and the ascending P. pendula were classic garden plants in nurseries and collections. Though not yet completely clarified, the influence of P. pendula f. ascendens on forms of P. serrulata must be reckoned with. For example, although pubescence of leaf blade or stalk in some of these garden forms seems to point to P. serrulata var. pubescens, it might also be due to an influence of P. pendula f. ascendens. The pitcher-shaped, pubescent calyx is characteristic of this cherry as