Cherry blossom lingo: blossoms on a tree trunk

The other day, City-cost writer Genkidesu posed the question; is there a term in Japanese for cherry blossoms growing directly on the tree trunk. The answer is, yes. In this post, the tenth in a series introducing beautiful terms used for cherry blossoms, I introduce the expression for it.

Cherry blossoms on a tree trunk

Usually cherry blossoms flower from shoots on the branches of the tree. But sometimes you can see cherry blossoms that are on the trunk of the tree, as in the photo above. Like Genkidesu, I am a fan of this phenomenon. I have found that it is more common on older, more mature trees. It really is a beautiful sight to behold.

As Genkidesu shared in her post about trunk blossoms, there is a term in English cauliflory which describes this phenomenon. I had never heard that term before, thanks for sharing. Some of the words that I have introduced in this series are not specific to cherry blossoms and can be used for different flowers, but in Japanese there is not just one, but two terms specifically for cherry blossoms that grow on a tree trunk.

The most common one, I believe, is "doubukizakura", but there is also the really beautiful term "magogaezakura". First; "doubukizakura" 胴吹き桜.  I actually had no idea what doubuki 胴吹き meant in Japanese, so I looked it up. It seems it is the Japanese term for "epicormic growth" (the phenomenon when flowers grow on trunks or branches). The zakura 桜, from sakura which is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms. The "z" is used when sakura comes after another word.

Meanwhile, magogaezakura 孫生え桜 can be translated as grandchild cherry blossom. Mago 孫 is the Japanese for grandchild gae 生え means grown and zakura 桜, as above, is the Japanese for cherry blossom when it comes after another word. I could not love this expression more! 

Have you seen any doubizakura / magogaezakura this year?