In this review, we summarized the past knowledge on occurrence mechanism and control system of the witches' broom of cherry. Witches' broom of cherry is a disease of branches forming numerous curved or upstanding twigs. In Japan, witches' broom is a cause of the decline of cherries because of the gradual decrease in the vigor of diseased trees. At the flowering, ascospores of Taphrina wiesneri are formed on the abaxial side of diseased leaves, and the disease is considered to spread by the dispersion of ascospores. Most inoculation tests to Prunus ×yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’ known to be a susceptible cultivar have failed to recur the disease in high percentage. Since the chemical control of the witches' broom has not been fully developed for practical use, surgical cutting is the promising way to prevent the disease. We further suggested that the recognition and the clarification of distributional pattern of T. wiesneri with molecular methods was a basal step for the establishment of control system for witches' broom of cherry.

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