Cercis siliquastrum Illustration Credit: Asad

Deciduous shrubs or trees. Leaves simple, palmately veined, entire or emar¬ginate or bilobed; stipules small caducous. Inflorescence fasciculate raceme on old branches. Bracts scale-like. Calyx campanulate, teeth 5, equal. Petals 5, zygomor¬phic, falsely papilionaceous, the upper inside the others. Stamens 10, free, anthers uniform. Ovary stipitate, many-ovuled, style filiform, stigma terminal. Fruit linear-oblong, compressed, 2-valved, the upper suture narrowly winged, many-seeded. Seeds obovate.

A genus with about 7 species, distributed in N. Temperate regions of the world.

Lower Taxon

• Cercis siliquastrum Linn.