Leaf:  Alternate, simple, 2 1/2"-4 1/2" (6-11 cm) long and broad; heart-shaped, with broad short point; without teeth; with 5-9 main veins; long-stalked; dull green above, paler and sometimes hairy beneath; turning yellow in autumn

Flower:  1/2- (12 mm) long; pea-shaped, petals, rarely white; 5-8 flowers in a cluster on slender stalks; in early spring before leaves

Fruit:  2 1/2-3 1/4" (6-8 cm) long; flat narrowly oblong pods; pointed at ends; pink turning blackish; splitting open on 1 edge; falling in late autumn or winter.  Several beanlike flat elliptical dark brown seeds.

Twig:  brown, slender, angled

Bark:  dark gray or brown; smooth, becoming furrowed in scaly plates.

Form:  tree with a short trunk, rounded crown of spreading branches

Habitat:  Moist soils of valleys and slopes in hardwood forests

Range:  New Jersey south to central Florida, west to southern Texas, and north to southeastern Nebraska; also northern Mexico; to 2200' (671 m)

Location:  entrance to Bunker Hill High School campus from Warren Street, is part of Welcome to Bunker Hill landscaping.
 
 

Very showy in early spring, when the leafless twigs are covered with masses of pink flowers, Eastern Redbud is often planted as an ornamental, the flowers can be eaten as a salad, or fried.  According to a myth, Judas Iscariot hanged himself on the related Judas-tree (Cercis siliquastrum) of western Asia and southern Europe, after which the white flowers turned red with shame or blood.

© Community Unit School District #8, Bunker Hill
    504 E. Warren, Bunker Hill, IL  62014

References:
Little, Elbert L. Field Guide to Tree:  Eastern Region.  New York, NY:  Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1980.
Mohlenbrock, Robert H. Forest Trees of Illinois.  Springfield, IL:  1992