Missouri’s State Tree – Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida, Linn.

Missouri State Tree - Flowering Dogwood - Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes

Missouri’s Official State Tree is the flowering dogwood. Of the several species of dogwood in Missouri, flowering dogwood is the best known and the only one with showy blossoms. It reaches its splendor in springtime on dry, acid, Ozark soils. Although the main distribution of dogwood is in the Ozarks, it also grow in several counties north of the Missouri River.

The most outstanding feature of this tree is its showy, attractive flowering branches. Blossoms, which are so welcome, appear before the leaves in spring. These flowers are maltese css-shaped and creamy white with a yellow center. The tips of the “petals” or bracts are notched and tinted with a rust color.

Leaves delay their appearance until the glory of their flowers fade, then extend to their fullest dimension of three to six inches long and approximately half that wide. The bright green upper surface and the contrasting grey-green lower, the wedge-shaped base and acute tip, and the typical parallel curving veins makes the summer phase also one of great beauty. The fruit, consisting of four or five oblong drupes, first bright green in color but turning to a brilliant scarlet in autumn, adds to the ever-changing picture. They are especially sought by the wild turkey and other forest birds. Autumn paints the leaves slowly from deep purple to rich wine tones.

 

 

The opposite leaf buds are cone-shaped and the flower buds compressed and globe-shaped.

After the serviceberry or shadebush has bloomed, the flowering dogwood dots the Ozark hillsides in the spring. Heights seldom exceed 30 feet with the diameter averaging six to eight inches.

Many unusual uses have been found for this shock-resisting wood. The hard, close-grained characteristic of the white wood makes it very desirable for golf club heads and handles for chisels and mallets. Other uses are wedges, pulleys, spindles, knitting needles, shuttles, sled runners and wood engraving blocks. In olden days its fine properties made it a favorite for distaffs, hog yokes, hay forks, hubs, for small wheels, machinery bearings and, even today, jewelers find it valuable for cleaning, without scratching, deep-seated lenses.

A story is told that the name was dogwood from the word dag which means dagger, skewer, or sharp-pointed instrument. Butchers once made skewers of dogwood because the characteristics of the wood adapted it so well to that use, and, in time, the name was changed by usage to dogwood. The Latin name, Cornus, means horn, and while the word horn is generally interpreted to read harness it could be that the shape (being horn-shaped or sharp pointed) could go back to the skewer of dag.

Source: Missouri Department of Conservation

 

 

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Learning Links for the Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood – State Flower & Tree
Additional information on the Flowering dogwood from the USDA forest Service.
Source: ClassBrain’s State Reports