Flowering Dogwood

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iFlowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood in fall with fruit

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Cornales
Family:	Cornaceae
Genus:	Cornus
Subgenus:	Benthamidia
Species:	C. florida

Binomial name

Cornus florida
L.

The Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida or Benthamidia florida) is a showy small tree native to eastern and southeastern North America, where it is also one of the most popular of all small ornamental flowering trees. Like most dogwoods, it has opposite, simple leaves. This tree is monoecious. The tree is extremely showy when in flower, but what people assume to be the flowers are actually showy bracts below the cluster of inconspicuous yellow-green flowers.

A single flowerhead, showing the large white petal-like bracts and the tight cluster of small greenish-yellow flowers. Early May, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

While most of the wild trees are white-flowering, some selected cultivars of this tree also have pink flowers, some even almost a true red. They typically flower in early April in the southern part of their range, to late April or early May in northern and high altitude areas. The similar Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa), native to Asia, flowers about a month later. Like all dogwoods, Flowering Dogwood produces clusters of green berries which ripen to a bright red in the autumn; they are eaten by birds which distribute the seeds. The berries are edible, though lacking in any interesting flavor. The leaves are opposite, simple acute oval, apparently entire (actually very finely toothed, under a lens), and 6-13 cm long and 4-6 cm broad; they turn a rich red-brown in autumn.

There are two subspecies:

Cornus florida subsp. florida. Eastern United States, southeastern Canada (Ontario).
Cornus florida subsp. urbiniana (syn. Cornus urbiniana). Eastern Mexico (Nuevo Leon, Veracruz).

[edit] Cultivation and uses

Image:Flowering Dogwood Cornus florida Trunk Bark 3100px.jpg

Growing Dogwood does best horticulturally when it has shade from the west but has good morning sun. It does not do well when exposed to intense heat sources such as adjacent parking lots or air conditioning compressors. It has a low tolerance of salt. In eastern North America, it is cultivated as far north as Toronto and south to central Florida. Farther west, places of cultivation include Boulder, Sacramento and Vancouver. It is sold in other temperate parts of the world, including Sydney, Australia.

It is very susceptible to dogwood anthracnose, a disease caused by the fungus Discula destructiva. This has killed many wild stocks of Flowering Dogwood; domestic landscape plantings have often been affected to a lesser degree because better air circulation and less humid conditions discourages the fungus, but losses still occur frequently. The Kousa Dogwood is resistant to this disease.

Selected cultivars

'Autumn Gold' - white bracts; yellow fall color.
'Barton' - large white bracts; blooms at early age; resists mildew.
'Bay Beauty' - double white bracts; resists heat and drought; good for Deep South.
'Cherokee Daybreak' - white bract; vigorous grower with variegated leaves.
'Cherokee Chief' - red bracts; red new growth.
'Cherokee Sunset' - purplish-red bracts; variegated foliage.
'Gulf Coast Pink' - best pink flowering dogwood in Florida.
'Hohman's Gold' - white bracts; variegated foliage.
'Plena' - double white bracts; anthracnose-resistant.
'Purple Glory' - red bracts; purple foliage; anthracnose-resistant.
'Weaver White' - large white blooms; large leaves; candelabra shape; good in north-central Florida.