In pictures: US cherry blossoms offer respite to Covid-battered country
The US marks 110 years since Japan gifted the fruit trees, with thousands of people rushing to Washington DC to celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Dubbed one of the world's "greatest celebrations of spring," thousands of visitors have been converging every day in the US capital, Washington DC, to witness cherry blossoms in full bloom.
Most line the banks of the Tidal Basin, creating a striking landscape around the famous Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and Martin Luther King Jr Memorial.
The beauty of flowering cherry trees is celebrated with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 20 to April 17. The festival also marks 110 years since the mayor of Tokyo gifted some 3,000 cherry trees to the US, adorning the city with pink and white blooms.
"The initial gift of 3,020 trees was represented by 12 different varieties. Two varieties, the Yoshino and Kwanzan, are now the most common type in Washington DC," according to the National Park Service.
"The peak bloom date is defined as the day when 70 percent of the Yoshino Cherry blossoms are open."
With the Covid pandemic on the decline and curbs largely lifted, visitors are flooding the festival after two years of sombre events amid several waves of Covid that killed more than a million people.
The festival features four weeks of cultural exhibitions, events, performances, and educational programmes across all of DC's eight wards and beyond.