Page 224
Prunus 'Bendono' Less current synonyms: Benden, 'Rubida' Description: Tree funnel-shaped, to 10 m high or more, with erect branches, vigorous growth. Young foliage red-brown, readily changing to green, serration often double with bristles and light red, small glands. Stipules slightly divided, 1015 mm long. Bracts and bractlets bright red(!). Corymbose inflorescence, with two to three or even four flowers. Peduncles 12 cm long. Pedicels 2.54.0 cm long. Flower in bud dark pink, becoming pale pink when completely opened. Flower about 4 cm in diameter, opening to a flat plane. Petals five, only rarely a few extra petaloids, oval, 18 Ă— 15 mm, usually slightly emarginate at the top, rather quickly shedding. There is one pistil, perfect, about 15 mm long, longer than the stamens. The calyx is campanulate, about 6(7) Ă— 3 mm, green with a reddish shade; there is a distinct transition from pedicel to calyx. Sepals are elongated and triangular, about 8 Ă— 3 mm, rather narrow, unserrated. Flowering season is mid-April. 'Bendono' has a diploid set of chromosomes (2n = 16). 'Botan-zakura' 'Botan-zakura' ("tree peony cherry") suggests a cherry with large, loose, globular, and double flowers that are typical of a tree peony. The first mention of a cultivar with this name is made in a Japanese book on horticulture, (Flower bed embroideries), dating from 1695. This source says that the pink-hued, large, double flowers are in bunches that hang a little. This name appears also in the encyclopedia Kokon (Yashiro 18211841), and Miyoshi described a 'Botan-zakura' in 1916 under the name Prunus serrulata f. moutan. The old English word moutan was used to indicate the tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa); it is in fact an old Japanese romanization of the modern botan. Wilson referred to this cherry as Prunus lannesiana f. botan-zakura. Throughout the twentieth century 'Botan-zakura' was present in Japanese collections and was also exported to Western countries. It was, for instance, offered as a cherry with "large, double, rose-pink" flowers in the 1937 catalog of the Hakoneya nursery (Wada 1937). There is some doubt that the historical 'Botan-zakura' is the same one we have today; it is not seen very often, trees are few, and there might be different forms around.