Are Cherry Blossoms Native to Japan?

Question:

Looking at it here it seems it is not, (http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt) however, while doing other researches about the tree, I also come across it being native to Japan..(http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/japan/japanese-cherry-blossom-trees/1582 THIRD PARAGRAPH), can someone help me identify its true origin?

Answer:

I would say it's native to Japan.

There are many discussions regarding the origin of Cherry Blossoms "SAKURA".
It is believed that it originated from somewhere in Himalayas, middle of Eurasia continent, and spread out to East Asia and elsewhere. However, Cherry Blossoms immigrated to Japan several million years ago and spread out all over Japan before prehistoric age. I think we could say Japanese Cherry Blossoms are native to Japan.

There used be a discussion that Japanese most famous Cherry breed SOMEIYOSHINO is originated from KOREA. However that theory had been rejected by DNA finger print researches including reserch done by US. Depart ment of Agricalture in 2007. Some people still believe that old theory.

Here's the Quote from Wiki:
In 1933, the Japanese botanist Koizumi Genichi reported that the Japanese Sakura (Somei Yoshino) originated on Jeju-do island (Quelpaert).[29] In 1916, Ernest Henry Wilson had thought that "Japanese Sakura (Somei Yoshino)" was a crossbreed of the wild species of Japanese Sakura ("Edo higan" and "Oshima zakura").[30] In 1991, Professor of Tsukuba University Iwasaki Fumio reported that "Japanese Sakura (Somei Yoshino) originated around 1720-1735 by the artificial crossing in Edo (Tokyo)."[31] Recent studies conducted on the comparison of Korean and Japanese cherry blossoms concluded that the two trees can be categorized as distinct species,[32] but the Korean species apparently has not yet been given a scientific name.

Refere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blos…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/76056…