Cercis canadensis, the eastern redbud, is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, native to eastern North America from southern Michigan south to central Mexico, east to New Mexico. Species thrive as far west as California and as far north as southern Ontario, roughly corresponding to USDA hardiness zone 5b. It is the state tree of Oklahoma. Description The eastern redbud typically grows to tall with an spread. It generally has a short, often twisted trunk and spreading branches. A 10-year-old tree will generally be around tall. The bark is dark in color, smooth, later scaly with ridges somewhat apparent, sometimes with maroon patches. The twigs are slender and zigzag, nearly black in color, spotted with lighter lenticels. The winter buds are tiny, rounded and dark red to chestnut in color. The leaves are alternate, simple, and heart shaped with an entire margin, long and wide, thin and papery, and may be slightly hairy below. The flowers are showy, light to dark magenta pink in color, long, appearing in clusters from spring to early summer, on bare stems before the leaves, sometimes on the trunk itself. There are cultivars with white flowers. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees such as blueberry bees and carpenter bees. Short-tongued bees cannot reach the nectaries. The fruit are flattened, dry, brown, pea-like pods, long that contain flat, elliptical, brown seeds long, maturing in August to October. Bark: Red brown, with deep fissures and scaly surface. Branchlets at first lustrous brown, later become darker. Wood: Dark reddish brown; heavy, hard, coarse-grained, not strong. Sp. gr., 0.6363; weight of cu. ft. 39.65 lbs. Winter buds: Chestnut brown, obtuse, one-eighth inch long. Cotyledons oval, flat Leaves: Alternate, simple, heart-shaped or broadly ovate, two to five inches long, five to seven-nerved, cordate or truncate at the base, entire, acute. They come out of the bud folded along the line of the midrib, tawny green; when they are full grown they become smooth, dark green above, paler beneath. In autumn they turn bright clear yellow. Petioles slender, terete, enlarged at the base. Stipules caducous. Flowers: April, May, before and with the leaves, papilionaceous. Perfect, rose color, borne four to eight together, in fascicles which appear at the axils of the leaves or along the branch and sometimes on the trunk itself. Calyx: Dark red, campanulate, oblique, five-toothed, imbricate in bud. Corolla: Papilionaceous, petals five, nearly equal, pink or