Cercis CHINENSIS - Chinese redbud, Chinese cercis.
Can be grown in bonsai style!
Redbud, Cercis is a genus of trees or shrubs of the Fabaceae family. Representatives of the genus are distributed in North America, the Mediterranean, Southeast and East Asia.
Deciduous trees up to 18 m (59 ft) tall or shrubs. The trunk is covered with blackish-brown fissured bark. The bark of perennial branches is olive-brownish-gray, that of annual ones is reddish, smooth. Leaves are simple, entire, nearly round or ovate with a cordate base, entire-margined, with palmate venation, petiolate, arranged spirally. Stipules are small, linear, early deciduous.
Flowers are irregular, in fascicles or racemes, in leaf axils on branches older than two years and even on trunks (cauliflory). Bracts are small, deciduous or entirely absent. The corolla is papilionaceous. The calyx is broadly campanulate, slightly oblique, thickened, with short broad obtuse teeth. Petals number 5, pink or purple, spreading, stamens 10, free, their filaments pubescent at the base, ovary on a short stipe.
Pods are stipitate, flat, along the dorsal suture more or less narrowly winged, dehiscent, 4-7-seeded. Seeds are rounded-elongated, flat, smooth. Plants bloom before the leaves unfold or simultaneously.
Chinese redbud represents very tall trees (up to 15 m (49 ft)) with large cordate leaves. The plant is thermophilic and does not tolerate frosts. Bright purple-pink flowers are gathered in large clusters, which in May make the tree very elegant.