Photo by Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Redbud

Redbuds are small understory trees in our forests. Their large, heart-shaped leaves and umbrella-like canopies capture all the light left after its passage through their taller neighbors. But it's their spectacular flowering that makes them notable. Redbuds are one of our most attractive spring blooming trees and certainly the most noticeable. As landscape accents they're unbeatable. And blooming as it does near Easter the tree has managed to accumulate some Christian folklore - something fairly rare for a North American plant.

Redbuds are also called Judas Trees since, according to folklore it was from this tree that Judas hung himself after betraying Jesus to the Pharisees. The tree was so shaken and disturbed by this act that it begged God to never allow such a thing to happen again. So God diminished the stature of the tree making it too short to attract future suicides and giving it red flowers to commemorate the blood shed on the cross. This is a nice legend, but the story raises serious questions - questions I raised in Sunday School when this legend was related to me as a child.

How, I asked, could Judas hang himself from a tree that is native only to North America? Did he come to America first and then hang himself or did some wandering ancient landscaper bring the tree back to Palestine and plant a lone individual for Judas to hang himself from? And where was this tree today and are there pictures of it? Can we see them?

I can still see the look of consternation on my flustered Sunday School teacher's face as she curtly told me that it was just a legend - a nice legend - of why the tree was small and had red flowers. I got the distinct impression that I had somehow ruined the story for her. Ah well...

Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Offsite Links:

• Virginia Tech Dendrology Redbud Fact Sheet
• Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Trees of Ohio Redbud page

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