Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) and the less common white-blooming redbud is usually the first native tree – to my knowledge – to flower in the mid-Atlantic (US).
Late April.
It would not be right to say that I wait for the redbud to flower even though (or because) a redbud tree grows outside my windows.
But if it did not flower, the panic of a disrupted Spring would get into me.
The flowers are said to be edible but I have not (yet) tried them.
White-blooming redbud, redbud, and white flowering dogwood. Mt. Cuba Center, Hockessin, Delaware
Redbud is a mid-level tree which flowers before the canopy trees – poplar, beech, American black walnut and others – claim the sky with their leaves.
Redbud is small enough to be planted in our city streets.
The tree leafs before it loses its flowers.
Heart shaped leaves. Sometimes green and less often red-brown with green veins. They darken as the summer progresses.
Every year the harbinger of more blossom to come. And of Summer too.
The name always disturbed me because they are NOT red. What I find nifty besides the color is that they can flower directly from the trunk.
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I understand what you are saying about the name of the white-flowering variety.
I assumed that the white is a cultivar of the red and that the tree scientists won the name game because they want to note what the hierarchy of these trees really is. But I may be imagining this reason.
The children certainly love the way the flowers spring from the boughs because they also spring from the trunk and these are within easy reach of the children. A rare experience between a child and a tree for whom the height of the luscious flowers of the the cherry trees let alone the horse chestnut in the city must look way up in the heavens!
The name always disturbed me because they are NOT red. What I find nifty besides the color is that they can flower directly from the trunk.
I understand what you are saying about the name of the white-flowering variety.
I assumed that the white is a cultivar of the red and that the tree scientists won the name game because they want to note what the hierarchy of these trees really is. But I may be imagining this reason.
The children certainly love the way the flowers spring from the boughs because they also spring from the trunk and these are within easy reach of the children. A rare experience between a child and a tree for whom the height of the luscious flowers of the the cherry trees let alone the horse chestnut in the city must look way up in the heavens!
Sarah