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The "Bakuchi-no-ki" (Prunus zippeliana) belongs to Rosaceae (the Rose family). It is a tall evergreen tree that is distributed from Kanto district of Honshu west to Shikoku, Kyushu of Japan, as well as Taiwan, China and Vietnum. This tree grows in dales of mountains and can reach 10-15 m in height. The barks are grayish brown and furrowed into scaly ridges, reddish yellow mottling. The leaves are oblong, alternate with pointed tips. Small white flowers come on the axillary short racemes in September. Apricot kernel water is made from the leaves and used for antitussive medicine. The Japanese name is based on the metaphor of the bark peeling off, like a person who loses at a gambling game and is stripped of all his or her clothes. In Taiwanese Chinese, it is called "黃土樹" and "大葉桂櫻" (da ye gui ying) in Chinese.
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