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leaflike pistil in the heart of the flower. However, in a tree of 'Ichiyo' many flowers can be found with two pistils, of which the lower half is phylloid. The light shell-pink flowers turn to almost white when they fade. About twenty petals are regularly arranged in two tiers and make a saucer-shaped flower with a diameter of almost 5 cm. The flower resembles a ballerina's petticoat with the two green pistils forming the legs of the little figure. The mature leaves show long awns on the serration and an upperside that is deep green. The underside is light green without any whitish shade. This cherry is closely related to the Oshima cherry. It has the same kind of calyx, sepals, and bast coloring of the young twigs. 'Ichiyo' is found in Japanese collections since the early nineteenth-century garden of daimyo Ichihashi. It was introduced to Europe when Ingram, while visiting the Sakura Kwai in 1926, requested scions to be sent to his home in Kent. The Flower Association of Japan (1982) and Kawasaki (1994) give Prunus lannesiana Wilson 'Hisakura' as the scientific name for 'Ichiyo'. "Hisakura" was proposed as a cultivar epithet in Germany by Koehne in 1902 in
Figure 127 'Ichiyo', showing the spreading tree shape typical of the Oshima cherry (Prunus serrulata var. speciosa). Photo by Arie Peterse, 5 May 1987, Wageningen Botanic Gardens of the Agricultural University, Netherlands.