Taxonomy
- Order: Cornales
- Family: Cornaceae
- Genus: Cornus
- Species: florida
Common Names: Flowering
Dogwood, Dogwood
General Description/Identifying
Characteristics:
©Scott T. Smith
The Flowering Dogwood is a lovely, small, flowering tree with
short trunk and crown of spreading or nearly horizontal
branches. It typically attains heights of thirty to more
than forty feet with a diameter of 8 to 18 inches. The
leaves are opposite one another and from 3 to 6 inches long.
The deeply ridged and broken bark resembles alligator hide.
The fruit clusters which bloom on this shrub-like tree are
scarlet red, and can usually be seen from May to June.
Habitat:
Dogwoods can be found in both moist and dry soils of valleys
and uplands, but they are best adapted to most upland sites
which have rich, well-drained soils. It develops best as
an understory species in association with other hardwoods, but
can be found along roadsides and in old fields.
Geographical Distribution/Range:
©www.enature.com
Flowering Dogwood is distributed throughout the
eastern United States, from southern Ontario east to SW.
From Maine, south to Florida, west to central Texas, and north
to central Michigan. Elevations up to 4,000' and almost
5,000' in the southern Appalachians.
Interesting Facts:
Flowering Dogwood is one of the most beautiful eastern North
American trees with showy early spring flowers, red fruit, and
scarlet autumn foliage. The hard wood is extremely shock
resistant and useful for making weaving-shuttles. It is
also make into spools, small pulleys, mallet heads, and
jeweler's blocks. Indians used the aromatic bark and roots
as a remedy for Malaria and extracted the red dye from the
roots.
References used:
http://www.enature.com
and http://plants.usda.gov |
