Prunus maximowiczii

The species was first described in 1857 by Franz Josef Ruprecht. It was treated in the genus Cerasus (now generally accepted as a subgenus of Prunus) by Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov in 1927, but the original P. maximowiczii remains the widely accepted binomial.^[1][2]

P. maximowiczii has white, insect-pollinated, hermaphroditic flowers, blooming in May in the Northern Hemisphere, November in the Southern Hemisphere. The edible fruits (cherries) are about 5 mm in diameter, containing one large seed each. They ripen in August in the Northern Hemisphere, February in the Southern Hemisphere.^[6]

Korea, China (Heilong Jiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Zhejiang), Russia (Khabarovsk, Primorye, and Sakhalin), and Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu),^[1] often in mountainous, woodland regions and in clayey soil.^[7]

P. maximowiczii is useful in many ways; aside from eating the fruit, the flowers can be used as a condiment, preserved in brine.^[6]

The wood of P. maximowiczii is very hard, heavy, and close grained, making it excellent for carving and the making of furniture.^[6]

Dyes produced from the leaves of P. maximowiczii are green; and those from the fruit, a dark grey to green.^[6]

Chemically, amygdalin and prunasin, the derivatives of which produce prussic acid^[6] as well as Genistein^[8] can be extracted from P. maximowiczii.