The guideline of the urbanist to the 17,000 best locations of Seattle for cherry blossoms

At the end of March, Seattle observes a spring tradition that is both natural and deeply human: our cherry trees bloom in concert, and people flood the streets to admire them. Blossom Guides tend to lead wannabe observers to some far-traveled goals, including the UW campusPresent Washington Park ArboretumPresent Kobe terraceAnd Lake Washington Boulevard near the Seward Park. These places are rightly famous – but with flowers that apparently appear on every street, I wanted to know whether there were overlooked gemstones elsewhere in the city.

The answer was surprisingly difficult to find because there is no central database for flowering cherry trees in Seattle. With an enormous help of tree data stewards in Seattle, I combined records from five city and university databases to take a more comprehensive view of trees in the city. The combined data record contains Over 44,000 flowering stone trees across Seattle, including over 17,000 flowering cherry trees.

What qualifies as a blooming cherry tree? First of all, they are members of the Prunus Charger, a name that includes cherries, plums, almonds, peaches and apricots as well as other stone fruits. Within this genus, some varieties of cherry trees were cultivated for their spectacular flowers. This includes:

• Japanese cherryPresent Prunus serrulata: Cherry Blossom Cultivation has a long story in Japan with signs of early 10th centuries. The decorative Prunus serrulata The species include the famous varieties “Kwanzan”, “Shirotae”, “Amanogawa” and “Royal Burgundy”. In almost every neighborhood in Seattle, over 11,000 Japanese cherries are widespread.
• Yoshino CherryPresent Prunus × yedoensis: A cross between Oshima and crying cherries. There are over 1,800 in the city, including the famous UW Quad cherries and clusters along the 38th Avenue Southwest in West Seattle and the Beacon Avenue South in the South Beacon Hill.
• Higan CherryPresent Prunus × subhirtella: Over 2,100 city, including several clusters on Phinney Ridge.
• Sargent CherryPresent Prunus Sargentii: Over 400 in the city, including cluster in South Charles Street and the South Dearborn Street east of the Rainier Avenue.

Here are ten less well -known places where blooming cherry trees can be found in Seattle in Seattle to find:

Other trees in the Prunus Generals have flowers that are worth looking for: in particular the Thundercloud Plum (Prunus Cerasifera ‘Thundercloud’) and Blireiiana purpleleaf plum (Prunus × Blireiiana) have spectacular pink and white flowers. Ornamental plum trees usually reach full flower a little earlier than the flowering cherries, so that their favorite harbing the “cherry blossom season” may not be cherry trees at all!

Finally, some trees in the combined data were simply referred to as Prunus sp.: This could be any kind in the genus, but are most likely cherry or plum trees.

Here are ten other places with which they burst Prunus Trees in the city:

We have to go beyond the pictures to highlight all great places for Blossom observation by the city. The interactive card below shows 17,000 flowering cherries and 44,000 Prunus Trees over Seattle. You can display everyone on the top of the map Prunus Trees or just the flowering cherries. The enlarged map shows streets and parks with dense trees: Click on a street or a park to concentrate on this area, or zoom in to display details for each tree. If you are in Seattle, you can also press the button on the top left to reorganize the card at your current location.

Make sure you zoom in in your neighborhood, even if it is not highlighted – there are probably still flowers nearby!

Trees outside of public rights are not included in this data. Even if you don’t see many flowering cherries on your map on the menu, you may be pleased with a trip around your block. Happy Blossom Hunting!

Nat Henry is a professional geographer in Seattle. He heads Henry Spatial Analysis, a missionary consulting company that focuses on health and urban sustainability.