Gnarled Redbud, University of Chicago, USA
A flowering 'Forest Pansy' - for that is what the Redbud, the Cercis canadensis, is sometimes called - in the city. And a gnarled one at that. (Ah! How Oscar Wilde would have smiled at that juxtaposition!) After blossoming, its green, heart-shaped leaves turn almost purple: hence the 'pansy'. It also goes by the name of spicewood because in southern Appalachia it was used to season venison and opossum. Pehr (or Pietari or Peter) Kalm (1716-1779), the famous Swedish-Finnish botanist and friend of Benjamin Franklin's, called it the Sallod Tree because its flowers were often used in salads. Others have called it the Judas Tree, because it is from a member of this species - the siliquastrum - that Judas Iscariot is said to have hanged himself after betraying Jesus with a kiss. Whatever... the beautiful magenta flowers of this exquisite tree lighten up every Spring, and there can be no-one who doesn't love a Redbud.
Walking into the Redbud Forests of the campus of the University of Chicago near Swift Hall and the language schools, I was reminded of the bitter fight over the language and nationality of Pehr Kalm about a hundred years after his death: he was claimed as one of their own both by the Finns and by the Swedes. It is wonderful that in the tradition of the liberal arts of this university (from 1890 onwards) such strife is a matter of humanist discourse and no longer a case of viciously sought-after national identity.
The Redbud was first depicted by that untiring English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683-1749) in his "Natural History"of 1731, but I rather prefer the real Flowering Tree. (By the way, I'm told it's a member of the bean family... Curious, no?)
Gnarled Redbud, University of Chicago, USA
A flowering 'Forest Pansy' - for that is what the Redbud, the Cercis canadensis, is sometimes called - in the city. And a gnarled one at that. (Ah! How Oscar Wilde would have smiled at that juxtaposition!) After blossoming, its green, heart-shaped leaves turn almost purple: hence the 'pansy'. It also goes by the name of spicewood because in southern Appalachia it was used to season venison and opossum. Pehr (or Pietari or Peter) Kalm (1716-1779), the famous Swedish-Finnish botanist and friend of Benjamin Franklin's, called it the Sallod Tree because its flowers were often used in salads. Others have called it the Judas Tree, because it is from a member of this species - the siliquastrum - that Judas Iscariot is said to have hanged himself after betraying Jesus with a kiss. Whatever... the beautiful magenta flowers of this exquisite tree lighten up every Spring, and there can be no-one who doesn't love a Redbud.
Walking into the Redbud Forests of the campus of the University of Chicago near Swift Hall and the language schools, I was reminded of the bitter fight over the language and nationality of Pehr Kalm about a hundred years after his death: he was claimed as one of their own both by the Finns and by the Swedes. It is wonderful that in the tradition of the liberal arts of this university (from 1890 onwards) such strife is a matter of humanist discourse and no longer a case of viciously sought-after national identity.
The Redbud was first depicted by that untiring English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683-1749) in his "Natural History"of 1731, but I rather prefer the real Flowering Tree. (By the way, I'm told it's a member of the bean family... Curious, no?)