Plant: Forest Pansy - Redbud Tree

The best known purple leaved redbud, reaching 20 to 30 feet tall and 25 to 35 feet wide with a rounded to vase shaped, often multi-trunked frame. Rosy pink-purple pea-like flowers explode from bare twigs in early spring, then reddish-purple heart-shaped leaves emerge and finish the season in red, burgundy, orange and purple. It grows quickly, takes sun or partial shade and clay, loam or sand across a wide pH band, and tolerates black walnut and deer. Flattened brown seedpods follow the flowers and feed squirrels, songbirds and quail. Use it as a specimen, an accent or a small shade tree at a woodland edge. The wood is weak and the thin bark damages easily, so protect the trunk and prune drooping limbs.