Purplish pink pea flowers in short-stalked clusters, breaking straight out of the bark of the trunk, branches and twigs in May.
Introduced · Up to 14 m
Judas tree
Cercis siliquastrum · Fabaceae
Judas tree is a low, spreading tree with rounded leaves, heart-shaped at the base. In May, clusters of purplish pink pea flowers break straight out of the bark of its trunk and branches.
Often mistaken for laburnum. How to tell them apart →Know it by
FlowersPurplish pink pea flowers in short-stalked clusters, in May.
LeavesSmooth-edged, up to 10 cm wide, blunt or notched at the tip.
PodsUp to 10 cm, red then brown, staying on through winter.
FlowersPurplish pink pea flowers in short-stalked clusters, in May.LeavesSmooth-edged, up to 10 cm wide, blunt or notched at the tip.PodsUp to 10 cm, red then brown, staying on through winter.Then check · ShapeLow and wide, often on more than one trunk, with twisted branches and a rather flat crown.
How to identify a judas tree
Rounded and smooth-edged, up to 10 cm wide, heart-shaped at the base and blunt or slightly notched at the tip.
Flat and thin, up to 10 cm long, hanging straight down, red at first and then brown, and staying on through winter.
Learn the judas tree in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
Franco Folini, CC BY 4.0rmjb, CC BY 4.0tylototriton, CC BY 4.0When to look
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In leaf
Flowers
Pods
In leaf: May to November · Flowers: May · Pods: June to February
Where you’ll find it
Planted in parks and gardens, and quite frequent in the warmer parts of the UK. It likes sun and a deep, well-drained soil, does well on chalk and copes with drought. In its home range it grows wild on stony slopes and in warm, dry woods.
What it’s mistaken for
- False acaciaBoth are pea-family trees, and both hide their buds in the base of the leaf stalk, ringed by its scar once the leaf falls. Leaf. Judas tree: one rounded blade, to 10 cm wide. False acacia: 9 to 23 oval leaflets along a stalk.
More the pea family
In the app
There’s more of the judas tree in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the judas tree on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: johngibson139 (CC0), rmjb (CC BY 4.0), Franco Folini (CC BY 4.0), tylototriton (CC BY 4.0), sturuss (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.