Ying Pi

Prunus serrulata (syn. Cerasus serrulata), the Japanese flowering cherry, is a small deciduous tree of the family Rosaceae, native to Japan, Korea, China and the Russian Far East, typically reaching 8-12 m in height with a spreading crown and smooth, lustrous chestnut-brown bark marked by prominent horizontal lenticels. The alternate, ovate to obovate leaves are 5-13 cm long with doubly serrate margins, glabrous, and emerge bronze-red before maturing to dark green. Five-petalled white or pale pink flowers, 2.5-4 cm across, appear in short umbellate clusters in early spring before or with the leaves, and are followed by small black drupes 8-10 mm in diameter. The smooth bark, harvested in spring, is the part used medicinally and has a slightly bitter, faintly aromatic taste.