Please be gentle. Don’t mean to invite the wrath of downvoters, know nothing about climate cycles.
17 years in Tokyo and have never seen blossoms this early. Took video today (Jan 2, 2023) and googled to see if anyone is covering this. Lot of folks taking gawker-y photos. Can’t speak to the entire park area, but will be making a 10km loop tomorrow. Tend to think it’s just a cluster of young transplants “shocked” into early blossom… but…
Remarkable? No? Any arborists or green thumbs who can speak to this phenomenon?
Video, photo, location: [https://imgur.com/a/sVKFzpE](https://imgur.com/a/sVKFzpE)
Thanks and happy new year everyone. 🙂
3 comments
They are plum blossoms. Ume have several varieties with different times.
Could be plum blossoms, but it’s a bit hard to tell from the photo. If not, it could be one of the winter or autumn blooming varieties. Kawazu-zakura bloom in February, for example.
Blooming this early though, could be autumn cherry (“jugatsuzakura” in Japanese). The shape of the flower checks out with that.
It’s not a silly think to wonder! First time I saw the February-blooming species I was pretty shocked too.
You’re not crazy. There is a a variety of sakura that bloom in winter in Kyushu. Though the trees your pictures look like plum. I can’t make out how the bark is splitting around the trunk, so I can’t confirm they are plum.