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sition from pedicel to calyx. Sepals are triangular, 7 Ă— 4 mm, entire or with a few small teeth, pubescent, green. At the end of flowering the filaments of the about forty stamens turn purplish red, with the lower part of the petals. Flowering season is from mid- to late April in Tokyo. 'Shirotae' Shirotae is the Japanese name of a white cloth made from fibers of the bast of the papermulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). It is perfectly white, like the clothlike, thin, and smooth petals of the cherry 'Shirotae'. This cultivar was among those planted at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the garden Yokuon-en of Matsudaira and appeared since then in Japanese collections. Referring to the white (Latin albidus) flowers, Miyoshi described this cherry in 1916 as Prunus serrulata f. albida. In the early twentieth century it was exported to Europe and North America as 'Mount Fuji'. The snow-capped mountain with its perfect cone shape was a preeminent symbol of the exotic Land of the Rising Sun. The name appealed to the fashionable Western public, but can lead now to confusion with the Fuji cherry (P. incisa).
Figure 160 'Shirotae', broad and spreading tree shape. Photo by Arie Peterse, 7 May 1986, Opheusden, Netherlands.