Cercis is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea familyFabaceae, native to warm temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-red flowers borne in the early spring on bare leafless shoots, on both branches and trunk. Cercis is derived from the Greek word κερκις meaning "weaver's shuttle", which was applied by Theophrastus to C. siliquastrum. Cercis species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Mouse Moth and Automeris io.The bark of C. chinensis has been used in Chinese medicine as an antiseptic. Cercis fossils have been found that date to the Eocene.
Cercis siliquastrum L.—Judas tree or European redbud
The Judas tree is 10–15 m tall tree native to the south of Europe and southwest Asia. It is found in Iberia, southern France, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Asia Minor, and forms a low tree with a flat spreading head. In early spring it is covered with a profusion of magenta flowers which appear before the leaves. The flowers are edible and are sometimes eaten in a mixed salad or made into fritters with a flavor descibed as an agreeably acidic bite. The tree frequently figured in the 16th and 17th century herbals. It is said to be the tree from which Judas Iscariot hanged himself after betraying Christ, but the name may also derive from "Judea's tree", after the region encompassing Israel and Palestine where the tree is commonplace. A smaller Eastern American woodland understory tree, the eastern redbud, Cercis canadensis, is common from southernmost Canada to Piedmont, Alabama and East Texas. It differs from C. siliquastrum in its pointed leaves and slightly smaller size. The flowers are also used in salads and for making pickled relish, while the inner bark of twigs gives a mustard-yellow dye. It is commonly grown as an ornamental. The related western redbud, Cercis occidentalis, ranges from California east to Utah primarily in foothill regions. Its leaves are more rounded at the tip than the relatively heart-shaped leaves of the eastern redbud. The tree often forms multi-trunked colonies that are covered in bright pink flowers in early spring. White-flowered variants are in cultivation. It buds only once a year. The chain-flowered redbud from western China is unusual in the genus in having its flowers in pendulous racemes, as in a Laburnum, rather than short clusters.
The wood is medium weight, somewhat brittle, of light tan color with a noticeably large heartwood area of darker brown, tinged with red. The wood has attractive figuring and is used in wood turning, for making decorative items and in the production of wood veneer.
