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harkuponthegay t1_j99h2h8 wrote

Reply to comment by hooahguy in Enjoying the early cherry blossoms and nice weather today 🌸 by BookHistoria

Are we sure these are plum blossoms?

If you look closely the petals look like they have the characteristic “notch” at their tips rather than being rounded like a plum blossom.

The pic is kind of blurry but the few buds I could make out also look pointed (cherry) and not round (plum).

Any botanists out there?

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1d0wn12g0 t1_j99vvkz wrote

You are correct. These are okame cherries.

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harkuponthegay t1_j99wcw0 wrote

I thought so— the cherry blossom watchers that the parent comment is referring to are only watching the cherries around the tidal basin that are traditionally a part of the “festival”— I don’t think they track all the cherry trees in the city, and some of these will be early/late bloomers.

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1d0wn12g0 t1_j99wr2s wrote

Yes, you are absolutely correct.

As an avid lover of flowering trees, it drives me mad every spring seeing so many people being so r/confidentlyincorrect in regards to identifying photos.

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hooahguy t1_j9a7pev wrote

I stand corrected. Someone else identified the early blossoming trees as plum so I went with that. Mea culpa lol

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1d0wn12g0 t1_j9ab0c7 wrote

It's cool, I just get picky over these things.

You've definitely been seeing plum blossoms/japanese apricots blooming the past few weeks. They're on their way out now, and these Okames are just coming in. There can be a bit of overlap so sometimes its easy to mistake one for the other.

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c_albicans t1_j9abtj1 wrote

I believe another way to tell the difference is that plum blossoms are fragrant while the cherry blossoms have no smell.

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