''Cercis'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of about 10

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the subfamily

Cercidoideae Cercidoideae is a subfamily in the pea family, Fabaceae. Well-known members include ''Cercis'' (redbuds), including species widely cultivated as ornamental trees in the United States and Europe, ''Bauhinia'', widely cultivated as an ornamental tr ...

of the pea

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to warm

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

regions. It contains small

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s or large

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-shaped

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

and pinkish-red

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s borne in the early spring on bare leafless shoots, on both branches and trunk ("

cauliflory Cauliflory is a botanical term referring to plants that flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks, rather than from new growth and shoots. This can allow trees to be pollinated or have their seeds dispersed by animals that climb o ...

"). ''Cercis'' is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word κερκις (''kerkis'') meaning "weaver's shuttle", which was applied by

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...

to '' C. siliquastrum''. ''Cercis'' species are used as food plants by the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

species including

mouse moth The mouse moth (''Amphipyra tragopoginis'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a widespread species with a Holarctic distribution. Distribution Europe (except the extreme north, and not occurring in the south of Spain, Sicily, or the Balkan ...

and ''

Automeris io ''Automeris io'', the Io moth () or peacock moth, is a colorful North American moth in the family Saturniidae. The io moth is also a member of the subfamily Hemileucinae. The name Io comes from Greek mythology in which Io was a mortal lover of ...

'' (both recorded on

eastern redbud ''Cercis canadensis'', the eastern redbud, is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, native to eastern North America from southern Michigan south to central Mexico, east to New Jersey. Species thrive as far west as California and as far north as ...

). The bark of ''C. chinensis'' has been used in Chinese medicine as an antiseptic. ''Cercis'' fossils have been found that date to the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Species

''Cercis'' comprises the following species:Fritsch, P.W., C.F. Nowell, L.S.T. Leatherman, W. Gong, B.C. Cruz, D.O. Burge, and A. Delgado-Salinas. 2018. Leaf adaptations and species boundaries in North American Cercis: implications for the evolution of dry floras. American Journal of Botany 105(9): 1577–1594. Cercis Siliquastrum Trunk and Blossom

The Judas tree (''Cercis siliquastrum'') is 10–15 m tall tree

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 described as an agreeably acidic bite. The tree was frequently figured in the 16th and 17th-century herbals. It is said to be the tree from which

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betraye ...

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 (rarely over 12 m tall). The flowers are also used in salads and for making pickled relish, while the inner bark of

twig A twig is a thin, often short, branch of a tree or bush. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away. The color, texture, and patterning of the twig bark are ...

s 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 (February - March). White-flowered variants are in cultivation. It buds only once a year. The species of ''Cercis'' in North America form a clade. Hopkins (1942) established a two-species system for North America which is still widely recognized. Alternatively, based on an exploratory morphometric analysis, Isely (1975) inferred up to six separate entities (“phases”). Barneby (1989) recognized only one continental species and treated all of western North American ''Cercis'' as ''C. canadensis var. orbiculata'', but the justification was cursory and not definitive. Morphometric studies of North American ''Cercis'' Fritsch, P. W., A. M. Schiller, and K. W. Larson. 2009. Taxonomic implications of morphological variation in Cercis canadensis (Fabaceae) from Mexico and adjacent parts of Texas. Syst. Bot. 34: 510--520. indicate that, although morphological variation is strongly correlated with geography across North America, considerable overlap in flower, fruit, and leaf characters limit their use for taxon delimitation. In contrast to morphology, molecular phylogenetic analyses recover three geographically well-defined clades within North America, with California ''Cercis'' forming a clade that is sister to a clade formed by Colorado Plateau and eastern North American clades. Molecular dating suggests a divergence time among these three clades of at least 12 million years. These clades were also inferred from a distance-based analysis of ''Cercis'' in the United States with isozyme data as reported in an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (Ballenger 1992). On the basis of these studies, ''Cercis'' is treated as comprising three species, with the Colorado Plateau and all Arizona specimens recognized as ''C. orbiculata'', distinct from ''C. occidentalis'' from California and ''C. canadensis'' from eastern North America. This delimitation of species will also be employed for the treatment of the genus for Flora of North America (Ballenger and Vincent, in preparation). The chain-flowered redbud (''Cercis racemosa'') from western China is unusual in the genus in having its flowers in pendulous

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s, as in a Laburnum, rather than short clusters.

Species names with uncertain taxonomic status

The status of the following species is unresolved: * ''Cercis dilatata'' Greene * ''Cercis ellipsoidea'' Greene * ''Cercis florida'' Salisb. * ''Cercis funiushanensis'' S.Y.Wang & T.B.Chao * ''Cercis georgiana'' Greene * ''Cercis gigantea'' ined.—giant redbud (China) * ''Cercis japonica'' Siebold ex Planch. * ''Cercis latissima'' Greene * ''Cercis nephrophylla'' Greene * ''Cercis nitida'' Greene * ''Cercis pumila'' W. Young * ''Cercis siliquosa'' St.-Lag. * ''Cercis texensis'' Sarg. * ''Cercis'' × ''yaltirikii'' Ponert (

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

)

Wood

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 Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator ...

, for making decorative items and in the production of

wood veneer In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood and sometimes bark, usually thinner than 3 mm (1/8 inch), that typically are glued onto core panels (typically, wood, particle board or medium-density fiberboard) to produce flat panels s ...

Gallery

Image:Cercis Siliquastrum blossom closeup.jpg, ''Cercis siliquastrum'' flowers on a mature branch Image:Cercis siliquastrum0.jpg, ''Cercis siliquastrum'' flowers and old seed pods Image:RedbudBlossoms20070325.jpg, New redbud blossoms Image:Cercis yunnanensis -3.JPG, ''

Cercis glabra ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family (biology), family Fabaceae, native plant, native to warm temperateness, temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly kn ...

'' in tissue culture Image:Eastern redbud.jpg, Eastern redbud or white redbud at Missouri Botanical Garden Image:RedbudPollen.TIF, ''Cercis'' sp. pollen shot on an SEM Image:Cercis yunnanensis (Jardin des Plantes de Paris) 1.jpg, ''

References

External links