Abstract
Cherry tree landscape of Cerasus jamasakura had been most popular for Japanese culture until clonal Cerasus yedonensis was widely planted over the country from Meiji era. In Yoshinoyama, registered as World Heritage in 2004, such original cherry tree landscape has been sustained for more than 1000 years. However, the principle of the way to maintain the landscape has been little argued in terms of physio-ecological aspects of the species. We hypothesize that phenological variation of the species is main role for maintaining cherry tree landscape in Yoshinoyama. For the purpose, flower buds and leaf buds of 171 trees were observed for 26 days in spring of 2011. Temperature was also automatically observed in each site at the duration. Historical weather observation and flowering records were also analyzed for understanding long term situation. We found that populations of Cerasus jamasakura has similar logistical distribution of both buds opening even in different altitude and topography. Chilling temperature may negatively influence on individual trees that the buds open earlier in early spring. This result shows that nursery of Cerasus jamasakura seedlings is compulsory needed because phenological variation in population help cherry tree landscape escape from chilling damage on leafing in spring time.
