Cercis canadensis: In The Bud of Time
Eastern Red Bud Blossoms
It’s one of those trees that if you don’t see it at the right time you’re not looking for it the rest of the year. I had gone past it perhaps four or five dozen times over a couple of seasons, but never in spring. But one day the blossom caught my eye. I knew what it was I just hadn’t seen it there before.
Eastern Redbud trees are native across much of the United States and Canada, basically east of the Rockies. The most common species is Cercis canadensis (SER-sis kan-uh-DEN-sis.) They’re small trees in the pea family and among the first to bloom in the spring and before they leaf out. They also produce large numbers of multi-seeded pods, from spring to late summer depending where it is.
Red Bud’s Edible Pods
Native Americans ate redbud flowers raw or cooked as well as the young pods and seeds raw or cooked. The flowers can be pickled. They have a slightly sour taste and are high in Vitamin C . They’re a pleasant addition to salads and can also be used as a condiment. The unopened buds can be pickled or used as a caper substitute. The seed is about 25% protein, 8% fat and 3% ash. More so, a 2006 study show the flowers and the seeds to be very high in antioxidants as well as linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid. The seeds also have oleic and palmitic acids. Think of it as The First Forager’s Health Food Store. Young leaves are edible raw or cooked.
Redbuds were first cultivated in 1641 and even George Washington planted some around Mt. Vernon. The name Cercis canadensis, as usual, has Greek and Latin origins. Cercis is from the Greek kerkis, which means “a weaver’s shuttle” and refers to the shape of the pod; canadensis means “of Canada.”
Heart-shaped leaves
The redbud’s native range is New Jersey to northern Florida, west to Missouri and Texas and northern Mexico. Oh, and it’s branches and stems also have been used for basketry.
Also edible are the flowers and pods of the C. occidentalis (found in western North America ) and the C. siliquastrum found in Europe. There are also several cultivars now of varying colors. One popular variety is called Forest Pansy. It has reddish leaves and pods. They are edible as well. Like all members of the pea clan the blossoms are a very distinctive “wings and keels” arrangement, keel in the middle, wings on either side.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
The Greek name for the shuttle — kerkis –inspired its botanical name Cercis
IDENTIFICATION: Small deciduous tree, typically 20 feet in height, gracefully ascending branches, rounded shape. Alternate, simple, broadly heart-shaped and 3 to 5 inches high and wide. Leaves emerge reddish, turning green. Flowers are pea-like, wings and keel, rosy pink with a purplish tinge. Flowers develop before the leaves in spring, in clusters along the branches.
TIME OF YEAR: Flowers in spring, followed by pods, seeds in fall.
ENVIRONMENT: Full to partial sun, well drained soil, often planted as an ornamental. I have also seen them growing, poorly, in total shade. They also seem to grow along the edges of open spaces.
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Buds raw, pickled or cooked. Flowers raw or cooked, young pods fried. Flowers fry nicely as well. Young leaves edible, raw or cooked. Regarding the flowers, the light colored upper part of the blossom is sweet, the darker lower part is bitter. Some folks removed the lower bitter part before eating. It’s a personal choice.
HERB BLURB
Herbalists say extracts from the inner bark and roots were used to treat colds, flu and fever. The Alabama Indians man a root and inner bark infusion for fever and congestion. The Cherokee used a bar infusion for whooping cough. The Delaware used an infusion of the bark to treat fever and vomiting. The Osage used charcoal from the wood for war paint.
Redbud Blossom Muffins
2 cups redbuds blossoms
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage or rosemary leaves
½ cup sugar
Minced zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375°F
In bowl #1, combine redbuds, herb, sugar, zest. Let sit 30 minutes.
In bowl #2 Sift flour, powder, baking soda, salt large bowl.
In bowl #3 Combine egg, yogurt, milk, oil, lemon juice.
Pour the content of bowl one in to bowl two and toss.
Add the wet ingredients from bowl three, stirring to just moisten. Do not over mix.
Fill your muffin tins 3/4 full.
Combine sugar cinnamon the topping sprinkle some each muffin Bake for 25 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly touched.
Remove form muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I will have to try these, I have an abundance of these trees. I always thought they were beautiful but now my mind goes in a whole new direction when I think about them. Thanks for the information.
I was so excited about this plant we have an abundance of them around. I found this one out a day before our big trip to Texas, while our trees were not blooming yet they were in full bloom in Texas. I had all my sisters and my brother tasting mom’s redbud tree. When we got back to Georgia ours was in full bloom, I can’t wait to try the muffin recipe and the pods when they come out.
i think the redbud is also called the judas tree. or was it rosebud, in citizen kane?
It was or is called the Judas tree but it was actually a different species in the genus. As for Citizen kane… wasn’t “Rosebud” his sled?
great bookstore here in glebe neighborhood of sydney
Edible?
There are so many poisonous legumes that I’ve been fearful of experimenting.
While I appreciate the recipe for the blooms, what I really need is a recipe for the pods, and some kind of indication of when the cut-off (as far as eating them safely) is…
When new, young and not bitter. Raw or cooked, usually boiled.
Are “Don Egolf” redbuds edible?
Don Egolf is Cercis chinensis. I have no published reference that it is edible.
The redbud seed pods are ugly to look at all year. Can they be removed first thing in the spring?
Sure.
Are the mature seeds edible? If so, how do you prepare them – I would guess by boiling them or grinding them into a flour. Can they be used as a staple crop? There are so many trees around now wit the pods very easy to flake off, that I think harvesting 20 or 30 pounds wouldn’t take more than a day. Do you know of any ill effects from making a real meal out of the seeds regularly?
To my knolwedge the mature seeds are not eaten.
I am now disapointed. I got my hopes up that I was about to find out wheather the mature seeds were edible or not. if the are, agro-forestry has a major crop that would likely sell to U.S. consumers. the world may never know. I once hear the leaves are edible. any information about that?
I have never read anything about edible leaves. As for seeds, I know the young seeds and young pods are edible. Moerman mentions the seeds are edible but does not give any age of the seeds.
Go to Youtube.com and punch in red bud tree. There is a video a woman has that shows leaves, pods and flowers are eated.
I have a video on you tube as well about the red but tree. You are referring to my friend Blanche Derby.
Love your videos Deane!
You do note several times on the Redbud video that the flowers are pink or purple, not red – thus, you say, the tree perhaps would have been better named the pinkbud or purplebud. I found this particularly amusing.
Still, I would like to point out that the name Redbud does not refer to the bloomed flower, but rather the bud. And, in my part of the country, the bud appears to be more red than pink, and sometimes with a purplish hue, but not purple. Thus, the common name should stick!
Locally the redbud’s buds are pink.
In bowl # 3 it says to combine yogurt, milk, egg. How much yogurt, since I don’t see it mentioned in the list of ingredients? The receipe sounds great and I can’t wait to try it.
Sorry for the omission. It’s been corrected/ 1/2 cup yogurt or a little more.
Redbud mature dried seeds are way, way too hard to be edible! In fact one way to make them germinate is to soak them 5 minutes in concentrated sulphuric acid to remove the hard, dense seed coat.
However, I’m very interested in trying the young pods. Thinking they ought to be something similar to snow pea pods. I’ll have to give them a cautious test, as I do for any new wild food plant.
My house mate tells me, when he was a child, he and his grandfather would pick the brown mature pods from a tree like this; and eat the juice or fleshy pulp-like insides. I am not sure we are identifying it correctly. We live in the up country of South Carolina. He explains the flavor of being like a prisimmon and slightly bitter at times with only small amounts available from each pod.