A deciduous cherry up to 20 ft or more high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves ovate to oblong with a rounded base and a slender drawn-out apex, finely toothed, often doubly so, 11⁄2 to 3 in. long, half as much wide, downy on the midrib above and in the vein-axils beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers opening in April with the young leaves in pendulous clusters of two or three on a main-stalk 1⁄4 in. or less long; each flower on a glabrous stalk 3⁄4 to 1 in. long, white, 3⁄4 in. wide. Calyx-tube shortly cylindrical or funnel-shaped, the lobes triangular and ultimately reflexed; both reddish and quite glabrous. Stamens numerous, very conspicuous, 1⁄3 in. long, white or pinkish; anthers yellow; style furnished with long hairs towards the base; ovary glabrous.
Native of Hupeh, China; first discovered by Henry; introduced by Wilson in 1907 and distributed as “P. pilosiuscula media”. P. litigiosa is a very attractive tree when in bloom, with its profusely borne flowers hanging down more or less in a stiff row along the branches; they are, however, soon over. Its most closely related species is P. pilosiuscula, which has coarsely toothed leaves rough to the touch, with small stiff hairs on both sides but especially beneath; the main-stalk of the inflorescence is longer (up to 1 in.), both it and the individual stalks usually more hairy, sometimes very much more so.