Cornus florida

COMMON NAME: Flowering Dogwood

FAMILY: Dogwood Family; Cornaceae

GROWTH HABIT: A small tree with a flat, bushy crown.

FOLIAGE: Simple, opposite, deciduous 2.6 inches long. Elliptic or ovate, abruptly pointed with broadly wedge-shaped or rounded base. Veins, characteristic of dogwoods, curve along smooth or nearly smooth leaf margin. Autumn color; bright crimson above, pale red below.

BUDS: Separate leaf and flower buds. Gray flowered buds, located at the ends of twigs, are onion-shaped.

BARK: Broken into many small, squarish plates.

FLOWERS: Just before or with the leave, mid-April to early May. usually white, yellowish, or very pale green. The four notched "petals" are actually large bracts (leaves) which surround the tiny true flowers clustered in the center.

FRUIT: Small, scarlet, berry-like droops in autumn, each 1/2 in. or less in length, clustered.

NATIVE HABITAT: Southern New England to Florida; west to Ontario, southern Michigan, eastern Kansas and eastern Texas.