Eastern Redbud
Cercis canadensis · Fabaceae · 캐나다박태기나무
How to spot it
Marked by heart-shaped leaves and pink to purple flowers that cluster, before the leaves, even on older branches and trunks.
Look
- Leaves
- Alternate, heart-shaped simple leaves with smooth margins.
- Flowers
- Pea-like flowers cluster before the leaves, even on older branches.
- Fruit
- Long, flat pods ripen from green to brown and may remain until autumn or winter.
- Bark
- Young bark is smooth and becomes split into long narrow pieces with age.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native from eastern and central North America to eastern Mexico.
- Ecology
- In North America it is an understory tree beneath larger trees; bees and butterflies visit the flowers, and it is a host plant for several butterfly larvae.