March 12, 2021
Soundbites & B-roll: UW arborist on cherry blossom viewing tips
UW arborist Sara Shores recommends looking for cherry blossoms in your local parks and neighborhood streets. There are dozens of different varieties of blossoming cherry and plum trees in the Seattle area, with blooms visible from early February until May, for some species.
For journalists
Bloom colors range from white to light rose to dark pink, and cherry trees — unlike plums — have distinct horizontal-line patterns on their bark called lenticels. These help the trees “exhale” or release carbon dioxide and water.
Sara Shores, UW arboristUW News
Plum trees, which often are mistaken for cherry trees, bloom earlier than most cherries and don’t have lenticels on their bark.
Many of the earliest-flowering pink trees each spring are plums, Shores said. She recommends checking the bark to verify. Plum flowers also tend to smell sweeter than cherry flowers.
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Kiyomi Taguchi ktaguchi@uw.edu / 206-685-2716
Tag(s): Sara Shores
