Someone asked me a few days ago “what is the difference between cherry blossom and plum blossom?” Then I thought I should write an article on this topic.
Most of the people who have not seen cherry blossoms or plum blossoms together they might think that they are both same. The real thing is they are not same at all. We can differentiate them seeing mostly their appearance and shapes.
If you want to be an aficionado of cherry and plum blossoms then I guess you better learn their characteristic and facts first. Thus how you could reveal their differences.
However, as I am here to express my knowledge here with you, I would try my best to deliver you the correct information. Let’s get started.
The Leaves:
The leaves of a cherry tree are green and they are unfolding. On the other hand plum tree’s leaves are fully reddish purple and unrolled though some varieties have green leaves.
The Petals:
Cherry blossom have a small split at the end of each petal, whereas plum blossoms don’t have split at the end of each petal. In fact, it is one of the main characteristics of between these two trees.
Take a look at this picture well shown below, I guess you see the flowers have split at the end of each petal.
The Bud:
Cherry blossom buds are oval. From one cherry bud, there is a possibility of coming out more than one cherry, where on the other hand only one plum blossom comes out of a single bud and its buds are round.
The Fragrance:
Plum blossoms have a sweet flowery fragrant smell that what I know. It is hard to say that beautiful sakura (cherry) does not have sweet flowery fragrance that ume (plum) has. It has a very light fragrance!
The Color:
White cherry blossom is quite famous in Japan. Except having white cherry blossoms we do have light pink, dark pink cherry blossoms. So far in my life, I have seen dark red, pink and white plum blossoms at different public parks and temples.
The Bark:
The bark of plum tree does not have distinctive horizontal lines and bark color is a bit darker, whereas cherry trees have light gray barks in which you may see small distinctive horizontal lines.
The Shape of Flower:
I think if you could figure their flower shapes out then you can easily identify which one is cherry and plum blossom. Well, the shape of a plum blossom is round. Yes, that’s exactly round!
If you take a look at a cherry blossom then you will find its shape looks round but has got umbrella shape.
The Blooming Season:
Here in Japan, blooming season of plum comes on early February. While on the other hand cherry blossom appears on April.
I think these are the main characteristics which could reveal what is plum and cherry blossom if you are confused recognizing them. I hope this helps you a lot.
Have a great spring season in Japan, that is what I hope for. Please take a lot of pictures of beautiful plum and cherry blossoms!
Best written and best photos on cherry blossoms and plum blossoms
Thank you for your article.
My local council recently planted a few trees, I knew they were either cherry blossom or plum blossom trees.
I know now I’ve two ornamental plum blossom trees and one cherry blossom tree. They are just magical and are starting to bloom now ( late winter here in Australia).
I’ve always found these trees magnificent.
I also enjoyed reading the meaning behind them.
Hi Tam,
I am very glad to hear that. Yes, indeed they are magnificent!
Thank you.
I just visited Japan very recently and was surprised to see “sakura” blossoms until my friend mentioned it was plum season. So I googled it and found your great article!
Your friend was right! Thanks for visiting this article.
it’s amazing. Thank you for the article.
You’re most welcome.
Thank you so much for making this entry. I work in Japan and this is my first time experiencing a Japanese spring season. At my job one of my coworkers (A Japanese woman in her early 20’s) stated that she saw sakura starting to bloom. However, to her surprise, she was corrected and the blossoms were actually ume blossoms. I tried to ask a coworker about the differences between the two but I could not understand too much. (My Japanese abilities is quite low at the moment.)
So, I had to do my own investigation and came here. Very good read! おおきに
It is my pleasure that you have visited this article and I am quite sure it helps you a lot to understand the differences between plum and cherry blossoms.
I hope you would have enough time to enjoy this year Hanami. Thank you.
beautiful…