Is this a redbud?

April 30, 2012 6:06 AM

Is this a redbud?

We saw this awesome tree in bud outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It has blooms springing from its branches and its trunk is covered in patches of blooms as thick as moss. A passerby said it was a redbud. Is it?

posted by musofire to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Looks like a redbud to me... probably an older one, with that thick gnarly trunk.
posted by kimdog at 6:14 AM on April 30, 2012

It sure looks like an Eastern Redbud to me (though a tortured soul since it is old and the pruning done on it over the years has given it a somewhat gnarly look.)
posted by eleslie at 6:15 AM on April 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think that's a Judas tree, aka European Redbud, aka Cercis siliquastrum.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:19 AM on April 30, 2012

Best answer: There's a redbud down the street from us that has those same budding patches on the trunk. It looks like it's glowing in the mornings. I've never seen another one do that. But yeah, redbud. Although, it seems like maybe there's something else entwined with it?
posted by dpx.mfx at 6:21 AM on April 30, 2012

I've never seen one with those patches of bloom on the trunk - that's really strange. Otherwise, it looks like a redbud. I thought they were Southern trees but according to this New York is at the top of its range and the flowering trunk is normal. Learn something every day! I hope the two in my yard start doing that someday.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:28 AM on April 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: mgl: the redbud in our yard (Chicago) blooms like that from the trunk--perhaps it has something to do with the difference in winters in New York/Chicago and the South?
posted by crush-onastick at 6:44 AM on April 30, 2012

The heart-shaped leaves are one tell-tale, so I'll echo the chorus and say yes. It's been so warm down here lately they're pretty much done in my area.
posted by jquinby at 6:53 AM on April 30, 2012

Yup, I've seen lots of Eastern Redbuds with the trunk blooms around NYC. They're my favorite!
posted by mlle valentine at 7:17 AM on April 30, 2012

Best answer: Yup. Also, the flowers taste like peanuts.
posted by oomny at 12:32 PM on April 30, 2012

Most of the redbuds around here (Pittsburgh) bloom up the trunk, including the two in my yard that have never been pruned. I thought they all did that.
posted by booth at 6:28 AM on May 3, 2012