Cercis siliquastrum: Deep Pink Spring Flowers of Judas or Judea Tree

Summary: Cercis siliquastrum is a small Old World tree native to southern Europe and western Asia. The Judas Tree is noted for deep pink flowers in spring.

Cauliflorous blossoms prettify long trunk of Cercis siliquastrum, Chesterton Road, Cambridge, South East England (tree unfortunately destroyed in car accident in 2006): Andrew Dunn, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cercis siliquastrum is a small Old World deciduous tree with nativity in southern Europe and western Asia.

Cercis siliquastrum especially favors the Mediterranean region, with homelands in Asia Minor, southern France, Greece, the Iberian Peninsula, Israel and Italy.

Cercis siliquastrum is known commonly in English as the Judas Tree. According to popular tradition, Judas Iscariot hanged himself from the small deciduous tree after his betrayal of Jesus.

The common name may also derive from Judea's Tree as a reflection of the tree's thriving ubiquity in the historical region of Judea, the mountainous southern region of the Holy Land.

Cercis siliquastrum presents a lively silhouette in the landscape, with a maximum height of around 39 feet (12 meters) and a spread of around 32 feet (10 meters). The trunk features grey bark characterized by a cracked, scabrous (Latin: scaber, "rough, scaly") maze.

Flowers open early in spring as profusely blooming racemes (Latin: racemus, “cluster of grapes”) of deep pink.

Consistent with the trademark floral shape of the Fabaceae family, Cercis siliquastrum displays a floral shape of five fused sepals with five free petals. Blossoms also sprout vividly as cauliflorous (Latin: caulis, "stalk, stem"; cognate with Ancient Greek καυλός, kaulós, “stem” + Latin: flos, "flower") flowers in stunning growths along the trunk and on branches.

As with other species in the redbud genus of Cercis, leaves emerge during -- not before -- early floral blossoming. Heart-shaped, with rounded tips, leaves offer a verdant palette of bright greenness.

Flat, long seedpods hang down in youthful greenness, signaling ripeness by browning.

closeup of Cercis siliquastrum flowers in mid-April: Sballal, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As a species in the edible Cercis genus, Judea's redbud offers palatability of its flowers, leaves and seedpods.

Especially favored are the tree's pretty pink flowers, which contribute color and bitter sweetness to salads. Flower buds are pickled for enjoyment as a piquant condiment.

As a member of the pea family of Fabaceae, Cercis siliquastrum contributes to soil enrichment via nitrogen fixation, a desirable process beneficial in agriculture and in horticulture. Rhizobia (Ancient Greek: ῥίζα, rhíza, "root" + βίος, bios, "life"), nitrogen-fixer bacteria, form symbiotic nodules in the tree's root system for converting atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds essential for plant growth.

The pretty pastel of the flowers is abuzz with pollinators such as bees and sunbirds. Comprising the passerine family of Nectariniidae, sunbirds are distant relatives of America's hummingbirds (Trochilidae family) and of Oceania's honeyeaters (Meliphagidae family).

In the eastern Mediterranean, especially in northern Israel, Cercis siliquastrum associates abundantly with familiar arboreal flora: terebinth (Pistacia palaestina), a deciduous shrub with shiny red flowers; common Israeli, or Palestinian, oak (Quercus calliprinos), an evergreen with dark green foliage; Tabor, or valonia, oak (Quercus ithaburensis), deciduous tree with seeds roasted as coffee substitute; and storax (Styrax officinalis), a deciduous shrub renowned anciently for incense from its resin, styrax.

The Royal Horticultural Society, based in London, England, since its founding in 1804, recognized Cercis siliquastrum for excellence in gardens by bestowing its prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 2012.

Judea's tree upholds the tradition of the small Cercis genus as pleasing spring florals.

flowering Judas Tree, Golan Heights: Orna Lotan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Cercis siliquastrum, Cambridge, South East England: Andrew Dunn, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cercis_Siliquastrum_Trunk_and_Blossom.jpg

closeup of Cercis siliquastrum flowers in mid-April: Sballal, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_bud_2009.jpg

flowering Judas Tree, Golan Heights: מאוסף התמונות של אורנה לוטן (Orna Lotan photos), CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_3421_Geography_of_Israel.jpg

For further information:

"Cercis siliquastrum." Plants for a Future (PFAF).
Available @ http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?LatinName=Cercis+siliquastrum

"Cercis siliquastrum (Judas Tree)." Natural History Museum > Nature online > Species of the day > Evolution.
Available @ http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/species-of-the-day/evolution/cercis-siliquastrum/index.html