Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Redbud

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Redbud trees, 1996
(23389.339.23, Jim Argo Collection, OHS).

Blooms on a redbud tree, 1996
(23389.339.40, Jim Argo Collection, OHS).

REDBUD.

The Cercis canadensis, or redbud, enhances April landscapes across the Sooner State. This medium-sized tree, from the Leguminosae family, boasts an array of purple-pink, clustered blossoms. Growing in valleys, forests, and fields, the redbud, with its heart-shaped leaves, evokes a message of love in Oklahoma.

Maimee Lee Robinson Browne (1881–1963) succumbed to the redbud's spell and made its conservation her personal mission. As the general chairman of the Oklahoma City Beautification Committee, Browne led awareness and planting campaigns and pushed for the redbud to become the state tree. Her efforts overcame the objections of opponents, including the formidable Roberta Campbell Lawson of Tulsa, who contended that the Eastern redbud and the European redbud or Judas tree (connected to the betrayer of Biblical times, Judas Iscariot) were one and the same. Quelling the debate was information from Oklahoma City resident John Y. Iskian, who showed that although related, the two trees remained different. Concrete success came on March 30, 1937, when Gov. Ernest W. Marland and the Sixteenth Legislature signed Senate Joint Resolution Five officially bestowing emblem status and extolling the redbud's historical role of welcome to the "sturdy and hardy pioneers." On June 24, 1971, the redbud as official tree became a statute under Gov. David Hall.

At the end of the twentieth-century Platt National Park in Sulphur vaunted one of the most prodigious displays of this hallmark tree. Beyond ornamentation, the redbud doubles as a medicinal remedy and a foodstuff, with many tempting recipes including redbud-sage muffins. The legacy of the redbud remains preserved on Oklahoma horizons and through a book of poetry published in honor of Browne. Hundreds of verses attest and revere Oklahoma's state tree, the redbud.

Rebekah Peck

Browse By Topic

Environment

Explore

Objects

Learn More

Alice Browne Allspaugh, "Necrology: Mrs. Virgil Browne," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 42 (Winter 1964–65).

Maimee Lee Robinson Browne, Redbud in Poetry (N.p.: Glencoe-Vacherie Press, 1964).

Margaret W. Hamilton, Sooner State Symbols (Norman, Okla.: Levite of Apache, 1992).

Elbert L. Little, Jr., Forest Trees of Oklahoma (Rev. ed.; Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Forestry Services, 2000).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Rebekah Peck, “Redbud,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=RE016.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.