Cercis glabra Pamp.

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Credits

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Cercis glabra' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cercis/cercis-glabra/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

Genus

Cercis

Synonyms

C. yunnanensis Hu & Cheng

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

pubescent: Covered in hairs.
synonym: (syn.) (botanical) An alternative or former name for a taxon usually considered to be invalid (often given in brackets). Synonyms arise when a taxon has been described more than once (the prior name usually being the one accepted as correct) or if an article of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has been contravened requiring the publishing of a new name. Developments in taxonomic thought may be reflected in an increasing list of synonyms as generic or specific concepts change over time.

References

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Credits

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Cercis glabra' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cercis/cercis-glabra/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

The deep pink flowers of Cercis glabra are produced extremely freely, even on young trees. Image JC Raulston Arboretum.

Tree to 6–16 m, 30 cm dbh. Branchlets dark. Leaves thickly papery to almost leathery, somewhat circular or rounded to reniform, 5–12 × 4.5–11 cm, glabrous or with tufts of hairs in vein axils below, major veins usually seven, inconspicuous, minor veins on lower surface reticulate, cordate at base, apex acuminate; petiole glabrous, 2–4.5 cm long. Inflorescence a short axillary raceme, 5–10 mm, bearing 2–10 flowers (or more). Flowers pink, to 1.5 mm long, and similar to those of other Cercis species. Fruit 9–14 1.2–1.5 cm, sutures unequal, with broad wing to 2 mm, apex acuminate, seeds one to eight. Flowering March to April, fruiting September to November (China). Pampanini 1910, Raulston 1986, Dezhao et al. 2008. Distribution CHINA: Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang. Habitat Forests on slopes, between 600 and 1900 m asl. USDA Hardiness Zone 7–8 (?). Conservation status Not evaluated. Illustration NT240, NT245.

Once again, there is a big problem in reconciling cultivated material labelled C. glabra with the descriptions of the species as a wild tree. For example, a tree at the US National Arboretum labelled Cercis glabra (NA 69139), grown from material received from the Xian Botanical Garden in 1998, was noted in 2006 to be indistinguishable from an adjacent ‘C. gigantea’ (NA 65489). This was checked (in 2007) by Richard Olsen, and he too could find no points of difference, with the fruits in both being clustered and not racemose. The name appears in collection lists of other American arboreta, but plants need individual checking to confirm their identities.

The name C. yunnanensis is applied as a synonym in the Flora of China account (Dezhao et al. 2008) but this has rung some alarm bells in the United States, where plants labelled C. yunnanensis are frequently cultivated (Dirr 1998). These tend to be rather densely pubescent (the hairiest of all redbuds, according to Todd Lasseigne, pers. comm. 2007), while the Flora of China account suggests that the only hairs on C. glabra should be confined to tufts in the vein axils on the undersides of the leaves.

Leaf and fruit detail of Cercis glabra growing as a forest understory tree in Wu Tai, Shaanxi, China. 20 September 2011. Image Paul W. Meyer.

Leaf and fruit detail of Cercis glabra, from an example growing as a forest understory tree in Wu Tai, Shaanxi, China. 20 September 2011. Image Paul W. Meyer.

Part of the redbud collection developed by J.C. Raulston, showing Cercis glabra in the foreground. Image JC Raulston Arboretum.