That would help, wouldn't it? (*grin*) It's growing in my gardne, but it came with the house. I'm pretty certain it came from the wild---the lady who lived here before me was a great one for bringing home things from the roadsides and woods. It's in nearly full shade, and VERY happy there. The leaves are broadly lance-shaped, and near the bottom of the plant they're about 5" long by 3" wide, getting smaller the higher up you go. They're smooth, dark green, and opposite. The blooms are on stems coming from the leaf axils, and have tiny leaves of their own. The blooms are put on in clusters of 4-6, and measure about 3/4", roughly the size of a dime. They have five petals of mid-yellow, with a tiny center of rusty-red. The roots are shallow, and appear to run underground to make new plants. It appears to be a perennial root, but the plants die back to the soil every fall. It stands about 18-24 tall, and makes a lot of seed. I'd REALLY like to know what it is!

I have several - they are indeed lovely trees although a bit ungainly in their form (which is part of their charm). Redbuds are known for crossing branches and it is good to prune them properly at an early age. The species are understory trees in nature and do best with some afternoon shade - in my Petaluma garden they fry a bit in summer and lose their color. They are susceptible to verticilium wilt just fyi so don't plant one in a spot where something died from VW. Very nice to have the dark foliage to contrast with green. There are many C. canadensis cultivars with green leaves - some very small, some ruffled, some chartreuse, etc - but this is one of few with purple leaves. I think that there is at least one other called 'Merlot'. Sara

"... but now you say that you think environmental conditions might be at work with a few other of your varieties?" [Carolyn] Carolyn, sorry but I seem to be confusing the issue somewhat I know. When I made the original post, no, I didn't think it was environmental because I hadn't seen that with the other tomatoes at all. Maybe I was hasty and maybe I'm not explaining myself just right. Then I re-checked all the tomatoes and found one Merced plant with some elongated globes way down low in the first two sets. Still all the other tomatoes look typical to their known shapes. Now with that particular Merced plant, I bought two in Austin in March and left them on my daughter's patio for a few days while it was cool and rainy. They had blossoms on them. Then I carried them back to Indiana in the trunk of the car and broke one in half while loading luggage. I re-rooted the stem and planted it out with blossoms on it. The first two sets have some elongated fruit. The other Merced is normal in all respects as far as I know them to be. So, yes, I still think something is screwy with this Chapman as ever single one of its 9 small tomatoes are heart shaped ... and that's streched out over maybe 24 inches vertically along the plant and in four different fruit sets. But I guess it could be sensitive to environmental conditions which in this case are unusually warm and dry for this time of the year ... but at the same time cool at night. However, the plant is very healthy and loading up with tomatoes quite well. So, the question would be ... is Chapman noted for elongating fruit due to sensitivity to hot days, cool nights, dry conditions? Is anyone else getting this from Chapman?

Compare to Solanum rostratum.