Flowering Dogwood – State Flower & Tree

Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida L.

Official State Flower of North Carolina
Official State Flower of Virginia
Official State Tree of Missouri

 

 

Flowering Dogwood

Dogwood blossoms - Photo by Scot Campbell

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is one of America’s most popular ornamental trees. Known to most people simply as dogwood, it has other common names, including boxwood and cornel. The species name florida is Latin for flowering, but the showy petal-like bracts [or specialty leaves] are not, in fact, flowers. The bright red fruit of this fast-growing short-lived tree are poisonous to humans.

The range of flowering dogwood extends from extreme southwestern Maine west to New York, extreme southern Ontario, central Michigan, central Illinois, and central Missouri; south to extreme southeast Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, east Texas; and east to north Florida.

Flowering dogwood grows well on flats and on lower or middle slopes, but not very well on upper slopes and ridges. The inability to grow on extremely dry sites is attributed to its relatively shallow root system. It is one of the most numerous species in the understory of loblolly pine and loblolly pine-hardwood stands in the South.

Flowering dogwood is considered a soil improver. Its leaf litter decomposes more rapidly than that of most other species, thus making its mineral constituents more readily available. Dogwood foliage decomposes three times faster than hickory; four times faster than yellow-poplar, eastern red cedar, and white ash; and 10 times faster than sycamore and oak. In addition to its rapid decomposition, dogwood litter is an important source of calcium.

 

 

Dogwood Fruit - Photo by Liz West

Flowering and Fruiting- Flowering dogwood has many crowded, small, yellowish perfect flowers, borne in clusters in the spring before the leaves appear, and surrounded by four snow-white, petal-like bracts. The bracts form “flowers” 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 in) across and provide a spectacular display in the springtime. Occasionally, trees with salmon-colored or light-pink bracts are found in nature. Pink and red flowering dogwoods… are common… [in] commercial nurseries. Dates of flowering range from mid-March in the South to late May in the North.

The clustered fruits of flowering dogwood are bright red drupes [fruit with a hard pit or stone] with thin, mealy flesh. Each fruit contains a two-seeded, bony stone. In many stones, only one seed is fully developed. The fruits ripen from September to late October. Trees grown from seed commonly flower and produce fruits when 6 years old.

Flowering dogwoods are extremely valuable for wildlife because the seed, fruit, flowers, twigs, bark, and leaves are utilized as food by various animals. The most distinguishing quality of dogwood is its high calcium and fat content (5). Fruits have been recorded as food eaten by at least 36 species of birds, including ruffed grouse, bob-white quail, and wild turkey. Chipmunks, foxes, skunks, rabbits, deer, beaver, black bears, and squirrels, in addition to other mammals, also eat dogwood fruits. Foliage and twigs are browsed heavily by deer and rabbits.

Flowering dogwood also is a favored ornamental species. It is highly regarded for landscaping and urban forestry purposes.

Virtually all the dogwood harvested was used in the manufacture of shuttles for textile weaving, but plastic shuttles have rapidly replaced this use. Small amounts of dogwood are used for other articles requiring a hard, close-textured, smooth wood capable of withstanding rough use. Examples are spools, small pulleys, malletheads, jewelers’ blocks, and turnpins for shaping the ends of lead pipes.

Source: B. F. McLemore, Excerpted from “Flowering Dogwood”, Silvics of North America, USDA Forest Service.

One Response to “Flowering Dogwood – State Flower & Tree”

1. Boss says:

   May 11, 2011 at 1:40 am

   Thanks for sharnig. Always good to find a real expert.