Paleo Foraging

Cercis canadensis L.

Synonyms: = C. occidentalis, C. mexicana, C. orbiculata (= Cercis canadensis var. orbiculata*)

Common name: Eastern redbud

Cherokee: kwaniyustí – “like peaches” (Banks 1953:70)

Concow: dop, tal’k (Chesnut 1902)

Little Lake: mū-lā‘ (Chesnut 1902)

Osage: žoŋšsabeðe hi – “dark-wood tree” (Munson 1981:233)

Yokia: kä-lā’ ä kä-lā’ (Chesnut 1902)

Yuki: chā’-ā (Chesnut 1902)

Location in Texas: SW, C, E, & sparse N TX; common in Travis Co. (ornamental & wild).

Form: shrub, tree, < 30 ft. tall.

Flowers: Mar-May (pink).

Food

Flowers – eaten by the Cherokee, children were especially fond of them (Banks 1953:70)

Fruits – pods were roasted in ashes and the seeds were eaten by the Navajo (Elmore 1944:56).

Medicine

Leaves – used as a ceremonial incense by the Navajo (Elmore 1944:56).

Bark – an infusion was drunk for whooping cough by the Cherokee (Banks 1953:70).

Material

Bark & wood – used for strands of finer baskets by the Kashaya Pomo and other Indians in northern California (Chesnut 1902, Goodrich et al. 1980). Along with willow, redbud was the chief basketry material of the Maidu (Dixon 1905). Used either like thread or as woof in twining baskets (Chesnut 1902, Dixon 1905). The wood was used as withes making up the skeleton of some baskets (Chesnut 1902). Redbud baskets were very common but not as durable as those made from roots, especially Carex roots (Chesnut 1902).

The bark was separated from the wood and formed into strands by first steaming and then peeling (Chesnut 1902). Such strands had some wood left adhering (making it red on one side and white on the other) and were used for twining, while other strands had all wood removed and were used as thread (Chesnut 1902). The bark was also left on for an entirely red strand (Dixon 1905).

Bark color is slightly red but was darkened by exposing it to smoke and was blacked in various ways such as soaking it in a decoction of oak bark and rusty metal (Chesnut 1902).

Gathering Season – fall, after the leaves drop (Chesnut 1902, Goodrich et al. 1980). Branches were sometimes cut down in winter or early spring before new buds formed while the sap was down for use in the next fall (Chesnut 1902, Goodrich et al. 1980). When gathered in spring or summer, the red outer bark easily peels from the white inner bark, making the material good for white designs but not for red ones (Goodrich et al. 1980).

Charcoal – powdered to blacken the face for battledress by the Osage (Munson 1981:233).

Experimentation

The flowers and flower buds are an excellent tasty snack or garnish. Some of them (with nectar remaining) have a sweet taste. Otherwise, there is a very faint astringent taste. It is easy to gather large amounts of the flowers.

Crushed, soaked in cold water, and left in the sun for a few hours, they make a decent tea. With sweetener and yaupon tea added, one can make a delicious tea.

The leaves do not particularly appeal to me as an incense, with their smoke having a somewhat of an unremarkable odor.

Note that the above map considers Cercis orbiculata to be a separate species instead of the current accepted status as a synonym of C. canadensis.* The range map for C. orbiculata (=C. canadensis) is below.

*WFO (2023): Cercis orbiculata Greene. Published on the Internet; http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0001057439. Accessed on: 21 Apr 2023

Cercis canadensis on redbud isle, Austin, TX, early April 2023. The tree exhibits cauliflory; i.e. it flowers and fruits directly from the woody stems and trunks instead of from new shoots.