Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

REDBUD

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Cercis canadensis L.

Riley County, Kansas

Height: Up to 25 feet

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: March, April

Also Called:

Eastern redbud.

Trunks:

Trunks usually single, to 1 foot in diameter; bark gray, smooth on young trees, reddish brown, furrowed on mature trees.

Twigs:

Slender, pliable, dark brown to nearly black; leaf scars crescent-shaped.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, deciduous, long-stalked, heart- to kidney-shaped, 3 to 5 1/2 inches long, 2 to 5 inches wide, dark green and glabrous above, pale and glabrous or slightly pubescent below; margins entire; tips pointed or notched.

Flowers:

On red stalks 1/2 to 3/4 inch long; calyces 5-lobed, purple, enlarged on lower side; corollas imperfectly papilionaceous, about 1/2 inch long, rose or pinkish purple; banner smaller than wings and keel; stamens 10, separate, in 2 rows.

Fruit:

Pods, oblong, 2 to 3 inches long, 2/5 to 3/5 inch wide, flattened, pointed at both ends; seeds 8-12, oval, smooth, brown. The pods turn brown and persist through the winter.

Habitat:

Stream banks, woodland borders, stony draws, thickets, and roadsides, on sandy or silt sites.

Distribution:

East half of Kansas.

Uses:

Redbud often is used as a landscaping plant. It has a spreading, rounded to flat-topped crown. Native Americans made a tea from the bark and drank it to treat fevers, congestion, and vomiting. The Kiowa viewed the blossoms as a sign of spring. Flowering branches were placed in their homes to "drive away winter".

Comments:

Redbud is the state tree of Oklahoma.

Redbud flowers