Cherry Tree Visitor Doing Well

Explanation: This massive Oshima cherry tree is actually doing surprisingly well. Many supports have been placed to hold the huge and heavy branches to prevent them from cracking and splitting from the main trunk.

This is a most special tree, here on the shore of Lake Ashi (or Ashinoko), a volcanic caldera lake, in Hakone, Japan, near Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo. According to an information sign, about 100 years ago the tree was brought from the Izu Peninsula and planted here in the Hakone Garden, and is doing well in this local climate.

Japan is of course known for its cherry blossoms, but this is a spectacular example of decades, and generations, of tending and care. The amazing spread of its branches -- rarely see in native cherry trees -- now reach some 72 feet (22 meters)!

In Japan, sakura, or cherry blossoms, have deep historic and cultural significance, including being used to identify times for harvest and embodying Shinto and Zen concepts and acceptance of impermanence in all things.

... and translated:

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week