Anyone know what kind tree this is?

[Snicker Bar]

310333

Also it has these little seed pods, are they ok ?

[Milo's Mom]

It might be a Red Bud Tree and if it is my squirrels don't eat the seeds from mine.

[Diggie's Friend]

The 2nd photo shows the leaves of the merlot Redbud I have.

https://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/3710/merlot-redbud.

Sorry, I can't see the photos to compare them with my tree. This Redbud has heart shaped leaves, and depending on the variety. Mine is Merlot, named for its deep wine colored leaves in the spring, that change to green in the summer; there is also an all green variety.

This tree shrub get approx. 18 ft. I thinned mine out by removing some of the thinner branches, not the thicker ones; now looks like a tree, not a giant bush as it did prior to thinning it.

The seed pods look a bit like a mini peapods. Those from the green variety are noted not to be toxic; I haven't as yet to read whether the variety I have (Merlot) has toxic pods or not?

One of our yard squirrels came over and jump up in it to get a nut, but didn't check out the tree otherwise.

[Snicker Bar]

Ok thanks ! I better psss; better safe than sick or worse

[Diggie's Friend]

What I found today on redbud pods is that if they are new tender, not dried the native American peoples would eat them. Most today would cook them just as you would snap peas and snow peas, to destroy the 'Saponins' that that are high in, which are a toxin that can cause gastrointestinal distress. Boiling them as you do snap peas, and snowpeas takes care of the toxin. Considering tree squirrels eat acorns that are very high in tannins that most other kinds of animals can't tolerate, including rats, this source is also higher in tannins, they shouldn't be a major issues to give a couple of tender spring growth pods to a squirrel.

As for wood, not found Redbud listed when it comes to being safe to chew. I have some I cut last year and saved for a friend; yet till the time I find they aren't toxic I am not going to send them to them to give to their squirrel to chew on. Even oak wood is toxic if too much is chewed on.

In the later winter tree squirrels will remove the bark of some oaks that have less toxins in the bark to get to the sap which they eat, not the dead bark. This isn't an issue for them. Yet if you put in oak wood in the habitat of a captive care tree squirrels it can be from the greater amount of toxins they would be exposed to by using the source as a chew wood than it is for them in the wild. Like most sources that aren't out right poisonous, but contain toxins, the poison is in the dose, but that it true of many things, especially drugs that are concentrated compounds, most synthetic forms. Best then to not over load wild sources, giving a few sources like maple helicopters.