Judastree

Cercis siliquastrum is a small deciduous tree or large shrub of the Fabaceae family, typically reaching 4 to 12 metres in height with a short, often crooked trunk and a broad, rounded crown of arching branches. The bark is dark grey to blackish, becoming finely fissured with age. Leaves are alternate, simple, and distinctively rounded to kidney-shaped, 7 to 12 centimetres across, with a deeply cordate base, an entire margin and a notched or rounded apex, glabrous and bluish-green when mature. In early spring, before or with the unfolding leaves, abundant clusters of bright rose-pink to magenta pea-shaped flowers emerge cauliflorously directly from the trunk, main branches and twigs, each blossom 1.5 to 2 centimetres long. Flat, glabrous, oblong legume pods 6 to 12 centimetres long follow, ripening from green to reddish-brown and persisting through winter. Native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, the species inhabits rocky hillsides, scrub and dry open woodland on calcareous soils.