Species
+

Cercis canadensis L.

Canada redbud, Eastern Redbud, Judas Tree, Judastree

Climate known 46 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

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, west to New Mexico, but able to thrive as far west as California and as far north as southern Ontario. It is the state tree of Oklahoma and the official city tree of Huntington Beach. The prevalence of the so-called "Columbus strain" has seen the residents of Columbus, Wisconsin, embrace the plant in their city's identity. Known as the "Redbud City," the town hosts "Redbud Day" annually the Saturday before Mother's Day, organizing a variety of themed events to recognize the tree.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cercis canadensis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cercis

Cercis is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known for the Judas tree in Europe or as redbuds in the USA. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-red flowers borne in the early spring on bare leafless shoots, on both branches and trunk ("cauliflory"). More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cercis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Illinois, Iowa, Kansas +32
Wild records
1914 in range· 503 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1120mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 111 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1120 mm a year, wettest May at 111 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cercis canadensis f. canadensis; Cercis canadensis var. typica M.Hopkins; Siliquastrum canadense (L.) Medik.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (800 mm of 1120 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 23.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1120 mm a year, wettest May at 111 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1120 mm a year at the habitat, 800 mm of it March to October. Wettest month May at 111 mm, driest February at 74 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 920 mm to 1370 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.9 °C, the absolute minimum -15.4 °C, about 56 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.9 °C to 5.3 °C), warmest day 30.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1120 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1355 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 14–40RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1355 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 1–169 / 3–1814 / 8–2220 / 15–2524 / 20–2929 / 25–3231 / 27–3430 / 27–3426 / 23–3120 / 16–2614 / 10–208 / 3–16
Night °C-2 / -7–5-1 / -6–74 / -1–109 / 5–1414 / 10–1919 / 16–2221 / 18–2421 / 18–2417 / 14–2111 / 8–166 / 2–110 / -4–6
Rain mm76 / 44–11774 / 49–12495 / 64–12793 / 73–115111 / 91–140110 / 96–134110 / 64–13495 / 56–12295 / 76–11891 / 73–11786 / 65–11584 / 51–125
DLI15 / 13–1921 / 18–2328 / 26–2934 / 32–3637 / 37–3940 / 39–4239 / 38–4435 / 34–4029 / 27–3323 / 20–2616 / 13–2014 / 10–17
RH %58 / 56–6257 / 55–6056 / 55–5855 / 54–5757 / 56–6058 / 57–6158 / 55–6159 / 54–6158 / 55–6057 / 56–5958 / 57–5958 / 57–62

Each figure is the median across the 1355 grid cells holding the 1829 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 986:2129 (40.675, -73.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1355 distinct grid cells holding the 1829 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 986:2129 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 7 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIllinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf· introduced: Romania, Ukraine, Transcaucasus
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.028, -77.196 · in the densest population, 968 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1914 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 503 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 298 km away. 34 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 85 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1914 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensisCercis canadensis

Photographs: (c) Michael J. Papay, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Turner Brockman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cercis canadensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Non‐native grass alters growth of native tree species via leaf and soil microbes
Jennifer A. Rudgers, Samuel P. Orr (2009) · Journal of Ecology
Heat and Drought Influence Photosynthesis, Water Relations, and Soluble Carbohydrates of Two Ecotypes of Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Jason Griffin, Thomas G. Ranney, David M. Pharr (2004) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Survival and Growth of Hardwoods in Brown versus Gray Sandstone on a Surface Mine in West Virginia
Paul Emerson, Jeff Skousen, Paul Ziemkiewicz (2009) · Journal of Environmental Quality
LONG-TERM CO2ENRICHMENT OF A FOREST ECOSYSTEM: IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREST REGENERATION AND SUCCESSION
Jacqueline E. Mohan, James S. Clark, William H. Schlesinger (2007) · Ecological Applications
Stomatal responses of five woody angiospasms to light intensity and humidity
W. J. Davies, T. T. Kozlowski (1974) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Distribution, Host Plants, and Damage of the Black Twig Borer, Xylosandrus compactus (Eichhoff), in South Carolina
Juang‐Horng Chong, Laurie S. Reid, M. Williamson (2009) · Journal of Agricultural and Urban Entomology
Permanent Genetic Resources added to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 February 2010–31 March 2010
Didier Aurelle, A J Baker, Lorraine Bottin, Carine Brouat (2010) · Molecular Ecology Resources
Initial census, woody seedling, seed rain, and stand structure data for the SCBI SIGEO Large Forest Dynamics Plot
Norman A. Bourg, William J. McShea, Jonathan R. Thompson, Jennifer C. McGarvey (2013) · Ecology
Patterns of tree mortality in a temperate deciduous forest derived from a large forest dynamics plot
Erika Gonzalez‐Akre, Victoria Meakem, Cheng-Yin Eng, Alan J. Tepley (2016) · Ecosphere

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cercis 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.