Cerasus sargentii var. akimotoi ("Kiritachiyamazakura")

Japanese name: キリタチヤマザクラ （霧立山桜）
Scientific name: Cerasus sargentii var. akimotoi

[Overview]
A deciduous tree 3–18 m tall.
It is found only around Mt. Shiraiwa in Gokase, Miyazaki, growing on steep slopes with exposed limestone in the upper part of the mountains.
The bark is dark purplish brown, with conspicuous horizontally elongated lenticels, and the surface peels off in small pieces.
Second-year branches are covered with a gray waxy coating.
The young buds are bright reddish purple-brown, and for a while after unfolding they are a deep reddish purple-brown.
The leaves are obovate to obovate-elliptic, 9–14 cm long and 4–8 cm wide, with a tail-like pointed tip and a truncate base that is sometimes slightly heart-shaped.
The leaf margin has sharp serrations with a small glandular dot at the tip, and some of the serrations are double.
The underside of the leaf is tinged with powdery white.
The petiole is 2–3 cm long and hairless, with nectar glands in the upper part.
It flowers before or at the same time as the leaves unfold.
The flowers are borne 1–3 per umbel in the leaf axils, and are pale pink with 5 petals, 3.5–3.9 cm across.
The petals are wedge-shaped at the base.
There is almost no flower stalk, and the pedicels are about 3.5 cm long.
The calyx tube is tubular, and the calyx lobes have entire margins.
The fruit is spherical, about 1 cm across, and ripens blackish purple.
It is distinguished from Oyama-zakura by the wedge-shaped petal bases and by the leaf serrations, which are often double and slightly ascending.

[History]
It was discovered by Akimoto Osamu on Mt. Shiraiwa in Gokase, Miyazaki, and was described and published in 2000.
The number of individuals is small, and it is threatened with extinction.

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