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Figure 111 Blossom of 'Fukurokuju' (left) and 'Hokusai' (right). Photo by author, 28 April 1996, Yuti * Experimental Station of the Flower Association of Japan, Ibaraki Prefecture.
much farther out among the blossom than those of 'Fukurokuju'. Flowers of 'Higurashi' have about twenty petals. Uzu-zakura (synonyms Prunus serrulata f. spiralis Miyoshi, 'Udzu-zakura') is mentioned in the 1886 list of cherries along the Arakawa River. The name means ''eddy-cherry" and refers to the inner petals of the flowers that stand in an open, spiraled, fanlike movement. 'Udzu-zakura' is an old spelling. This cherry is often believed to be the same as 'Hokusai' or 'Fukurokuju'. Chadbund (1972), for example, mistakenly took 'Amabilis' (synonym 'Higurashi') and 'Spiralis' (synonym 'Uzu-zakura') as synonyms for 'Hokusai'. Ingram considered 'Uzu-zakura' merely an upright strain of 'Hokusai' and claimed that the petals showed the same wrinkled appearance when unfolding. Jefferson (1984) gave 'Hokusai' as a synonym for 'Udzu-zakura'. 'Uzu-zakura' does not, however, even vaguely resemble these cultivars, nor does it have any relation with 'Fukurokuju'. The latter has large flowers with at the most twenty petals at a diameter of 5 cm, whereas 'Uzu-zakura' has about thirty bifid, wrinkled petals 1215 mm long, making for much