Redbuds are among the many flowering trees that grace Pennsylvania, helping to dull the memory of winter with a burst of life and color. Native across the eastern United States, redbuds stand out not just for their brilliant pink-to-magenta blossoms, but also for where those blossoms appear on the tree itself.
It’s common knowledge that most trees – and in fact, most flowering plants overall – develop blossoms at the tips of their growth, be that branches for most trees, or a variety of stalks for the plants that we generically classify as “flowers.”
And while redbuds follow this pattern and sport blossoms on their branch ends, their blossoms also appear…basically anywhere else on the tree, including sprouting from the sides of limbs and even the trunk itself.
This behavior is slightly jarring the first time you see it, and my first instinct was to wonder if the tree was suffering from disease or a mutation. A quick bit of research revealed that this is just redbuds being redbuds!