Cercis

Legume family. Name: from the Greek 'cercis' - a weaver's shuttle; the fruits are shaped like a shuttle.

Description: includes 7 species of deciduous, ornamental-flowering trees or shrubs. Two of them occur in China: Chinese Cercis (С. chinensis Bunge.) - in Central and Western China, Cercis racemose (С. racemosa Oliv.) - in Central China. Two species — European Cercis (Cercis siliquastrum L.) and Griffith's Cercis (С. griffithii Boiss.) grow in regions of the ancient Mediterranean, the southwest Pamir-Alay, mountainous Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the single locality in Transcaucasia — the Shvanidzor gorge. They are all very heat-loving, so admiring them in a private garden is rather problematic. The North American species are more hardy: Cercis reniform (Reniformis Engelm.), Cercis western (С. occidentalis Torr.) and Cercis Canadian (С. canadensis L.).