Eastern Redbud

Everything is green here, in May. Flower and vegetable gardens are in full swing, and tractors are in the fields, baling hay. But in late March or early April, when it seems the sky and woods will always be the same dreary shade of grey, the eastern redbud is one of our first signs of the hope of spring.

The purple blossoms fill the woods overnight, scattered with the white of the occasional wild plum, cherry, or dogwood, and after a warm rain or two, the spring grass lends a complementary green. Trees, bushes and brambles start to bud out, and before long there is nothing but growth and birdsong. The eastern redbud then retreats gracefully, going unnoticed until fall, when clusters of seedpods hang below its heart-shaped leaves.




This is a beautiful tree, would probably make great shade in the yard. In thick woods, it sometimes gets very tall (up to 40-50 feet, according to my older tree book), and the blooms seem more sparse, then. Other places, it lives in the understory, and takes on an umbrella shape. The trunk is not thick. The seedpods are plentiful, legume-like, but not as long or large as the pods of the locust-tree, and they dry flat and brown. The leaves are large and heart-shaped. We do have one redbud here that I have seen not bearing seedpods, so I'm wondering if there are male and female trees.

Something about it reminds me of the catalpa tree. Must be the leaves, and the feel of "cool shade" when you're near it.

Trees

I've always loved trees. Whenever I get a chance, I like to wander through our woods, and I'm always trying to identify the trees I see.

This week I found elm trees, sugar and silver maples, some large ash trees back behind the house, and discovered that two of the trees growing beside the old shed are a hackberry and a box elder. That poor box elder, it's right by the shed door, and I used to cut it down close to the ground, every summer. It kept coming back, and after letting it go one summer (or two?), I no longer have the heart to kill it; it's a "real" tree, now, and I have a climbing rose that has clambered up through the lower branches and bloomed out for the first time. Don't know what we'll do when it finally blocks that door...but I have a feeling that the tree will be around longer than the shed.



The locust trees have been in full bloom, and now the white petals are starting to float down into the garden whenever the wind blows.

This spring has been cool and wet, giving everything a chance to recover from last year's drought. We also didn't have another late freeze. Blossoms survived, and it looks like we will have nuts and fruit this fall.

I really need to start carrying my camera and a tree book. Wouldn't hurt to have binoculars, for those hard to spot leaves and flowers, twenty or thirty feet above me!

I do have some photos from previous walks. I think I'll start posting them here, it would be a neat way to keep track of them.