Flowering Dogwood
Three kinds of native dogwoods grow in Herrontown Woods: flowering, silky, and pagoda. Flowering dogwoods are the largest, most numerous, and most showy. Though susceptible to an introduced anthracnose, many persist in the understory.
Description: Flowering dogwoods grow 10-40 feet high with a diameter of up to 12 inches. Leaves are hairless or nearly so, elliptic to egg-or wedge-shaped with 5-6 pairs of arc-shaped veins. They measure between 2-5 inches. The mature bark is dark, deeply cobbled and reminiscent of alligator skin. Twigs are opposite branching, usually dark purple but sometimes green with a white pith. Flowers are small, and clustered with generally 4 but up to 8 large white or pink petal-like bracts and appear between March and June. Fruits are red or rarely yellow drupes that are found in clusters of 3-4 from August until November.
Similar species: This is the only dogwood with showy white bracts and stalked flower-buds. The bark is similar to but less corky than that of persimmon or blackhaw viburnum. Silky dogwood is smaller, more shrublike, while pagoda dogwood has alternate branching.
Wildlife value: The bitter red fruits and the twigs are an important food source for song and game birds as well as mammals.
Uses: The powdered bark used to be made into toothpaste or mixed with iron sulphate to make a black ink. During the civil war the bark was also used as a quinine substitute to treat fevers. The bark of the roots yielded a scarlet dye. The hard and close-grained wood is used to make shuttle, bobbins, tool handles, mallets and golf club heads.
Latin name: Cornus florida
Etymology: Cornus florida gets its’ name from its appearance - the genus name comes from the Latin word for ‘horn’ (cornu), likely referring to the tree’s hard, dense wood while the species name comes from the Latin word for ‘flower’ (flos).
Family: Cornaceae (Dogwoods)
Origin: Eastern North America and eastern Mexico
Native habitats: Thickets and the understory of deciduous forests, riverbanks as well as dry uplands.
