In much of the Midwest, spring would not be spring without flowering dogwoods. Appearing in a wide variety of ecosystems (from beech-maple forests to Appalachian cove forests and, especially, oak-hickory woods) the flowering dogwood is an inconspicuous understory tree, scarcely noticed for most of the year but suddenly stunning in April and May, when it blooms. After the flowers fall away the tree can be recognized in the hot summer months by its leaves and, especially, its distinctive bark—and, later, in late summer and fall, flowering dogwood produces fairly large, olive-shaped fruits that mature to bright red.

Flowering dogwood is sold commercially and often planted in towns; these cultivars sometimes have pinker and/or wider flowers than the native tree. Other species of Cornus (for example rough-leaved dogwood) are shrubs that do not usually reach tree size, and have very different flowers and fruits.

flowering dogwood is a spreading understory tree

distinctive scaly bark

showy white "flowers" appear in spring (see next caption) . . .

. . . though the actual flower is the green stuff in the middle, while the white "petals" are really modified leaves (bracts) supporting the flowers

leaves have 4–6 prominent veins on either side of the central vein

fruits turn red by September

the petal-like bracts sometimes develop pink tinges

immature and mature fruits

fall leaves are red and purplish

References: Peattie 1948, GN Jones 1971, Miller & Jacques 1978, Kricher & Morrison 1988, Preston 1989, RL Jones 2005, Mohlenbrock 2006, Kershaw 2007, Sibley 2009, Voss & Reznicek 2012, Mohlenbrock 2014, Hilty 2018, USDA 2018.

Kuo, Michael & Melissa Kuo (May, 2019). Cornus florida (flowering dogwood). Retrieved from the midwestnaturalist.com website: www.midwestnaturalist.com/cornus_florida.html

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