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Flowering Dogwood

Cornus florida

Summary 6

Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae native to eastern North America and northern Mexico. An endemic population once spanned from southernmost coastal Maine south to northern Florida and west to the Mississippi River. The tree is commonly planted because of its showy bracts and interesting bark structure.

Flowering dogwood is a small deciduous tree growing to 33 ft high, often wider than it is tall when mature, with a trunk diameter of up to 1 ft. A 10-year-old tree will stand about 16 ft tall. The leaves are opposite, simple, ovate, 2.4–5.1 in long and 1.6–2.4 in broad, with an apparently entire margin (actually very finely toothed, under a lens); they turn a rich red-brown in fall. Flowering dogwood attains its greatest size and growth potential in the Upper South, sometimes up to 40 feet in height. At the northern end of its range, heights of 30–33 feet are more typical. Hot, humid summer weather is necessary for new growth to harden off in the fall. The maximum lifespan of C. florida is about 80 years

Native Americans used the bark and roots in a remedy for malaria; a red dye was also extracted from the roots. The species has been used in the production of inks, scarlet dyes, and as a quinine substitute. The hard, dense wood has been used for products such as golf club heads, mallets, wooden rake teeth, tool handles, jeweler's boxes and butcher's blocks.   Cornus florida is the state tree and flower of Virginia, the state tree of Missouri, and state flower of North Carolina. It was used to treat dogs with mange, which may be how it got its name. The red berries are not edible, despite some rumors otherwise.

In 1915, 40 dogwood saplings were donated by the U.S. to Japan in the 1912-15 exchange of flowers between Tokyo and Washington, D.C. While the cherry blossom trees survived the ensuing sour relations of these two countries and are the main feature of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, all dogwood trees in Tokyo died except the one that had been planted in an agriculture high school. In 2012, the United States sent 3,000 dogwood saplings to Japan to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Washington, D.C., cherry trees given as a gift to the U.S. by Japan in 1912.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Ryan_Diener, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ryan_Diener
  2. (c) Martin LaBar, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlabar/6352181905/
  3. (c) nahual, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by nahual
  4. (c) Marissa, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Marissa
  5. (c) Erin and Lance Willett, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/60477398@N00/446649663
  6. Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_florida

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