Prunus covidia - cherry trees flowering on the streets of Hammersmith and Fulham within one permitted exercise walk from my home.
The city streets are empty now... I’m turned to stone... but nature lives on. It’s a paradox that the tree flowers are in stonking full bloom just when we humans are so restricted. These trees are all within one exercise walk from my home.
Hammersmith and Fulham has very few streets lined with Prunus trees (ornamental cherry trees) but it has a great collection of specimen Prunus trees in key locations. The cemeteries also have fine plantings, some quite ancient and exotic. Note the colour and size variations as well as the single and double-flowered varieties. Some have a great scent too, to attract the pollinators. Prunus flowers all have five petals.
Prunus covidia is my confection, there is no such botanical genus. An alternative implying a Prunus of the Covid-19 era would have been Prunus coronaviri.
Thanks to Alan for the discussion on Latin grammar and botanical taxonomies