Due to its hard, strong, heavy, fine-grained, and shock-resistant wood, Cornus florida was used for shuttles in textile manufacturing, and is used for tool handles, and tool parts. It is also used for golf clubs, roller-skate wheels, knitting needles, and similar items. In addition, it is a very valuable species for wildlife; all parts of the plant are used as food by various animals (the fruits are poisonous to humans, but not to animals).
Flowering dogwood is a deciduous, multi-trunked, shrub to small tree growing 10 to 55 feet tall. Its tiny, yellow flowers are inconspicuous, and have both male and female parts. The flowers are clustered in the center and surrounded by four large, white or pinkish bracts that look like petals, rendering it very showy. Flowering occurs when plants mature at about 6 years of age, and are insect-pollinated.
Flowering dogwood favors well-drained, light upland soils to deep, moist soils. It is often found in mesic deciduous woods, on floodplains, lower to middle slopes, and bluffs, in ravines, and along streams. It is very shade tolerant, and is reportedly sensitive to drought and flooding.
Flowering dogwood is a USA-NPN regional plant species. Regional species are ecologically or economically important but are distributed more locally than calibration species. The NPN integrates these observations to understand better plant responses within the different geographic regions of the nation. These dogwoods are not cloned and are not distributed through the USA-NPN Cloned Plants Project. However, their response to climate is generally uniform and similar to cloned dogwoods and for that reason are considered part of the Cloned Plants Project.
If drought seems to be the cause of leaf color or fall for a plant, please make a comment about it for that observation.
Do you see...?
Breaking leaf buds One or more breaking leaf buds are visible on the plant. A leaf bud is considered "breaking" once a green leaf tip is visible at the end of the bud, but before the first leaf from the bud has unfolded to expose the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base.
How many buds are breaking?
Less than 3
3 to 10
11 to 100
101 to 1,000
1,001 to 10,000
More than 10,000
Leaves One or more live, unfolded leaves are visible on the plant. A leaf is considered "unfolded" once its entire length has emerged from the breaking bud so that the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base is visible at its point of attachment to the stem. Do not include fully dried or dead leaves.
What percentage of the canopy is full with leaves? Ignore dead branches in your estimate.
Less than 5%
5-24%
25-49%
50-74%
75-94%
95% or more
Increasing leaf size A majority of leaves on the plant have not yet reached their full size and are still growing larger. Do not include new leaves that continue to emerge at the ends of elongating stems throughout the growing season.
What percentage of full size are most leaves?
Less than 25%
Colored leaves One or more leaves (including any that have recently fallen from the plant) have turned to their late-season colors. Do not include fully dried or dead leaves that remain on the plant.
What percentage of the canopy is full with colored leaves?
Falling leaves One or more leaves are falling or have recently fallen from the plant. More...
Flowers or flower buds One or more fresh open or unopened flowers or flower buds are visible on the plant. Include flower buds that are still developing, but do not include wilted or dried flowers.
How many flowers and flower buds are present? For species in which individual flowers are clustered in flower heads, spikes or catkins (inflorescences), simply estimate the number of flower heads, spikes or catkins and not the number of individual flowers.
Open flowers One or more open, fresh flowers are visible on the plant. Flowers are considered "open" when the reproductive parts (male stamens or female pistils) are visible between or within unfolded or open flower parts (petals, floral tubes or sepals). Do not include wilted or dried flowers. For Cornus florida, ignore the four large, white bracts and watch for the opening of the small flowers in the center of the bracts.
What percentage of all fresh flowers (buds plus unopened plus open) on the plant are open? For species in which individual flowers are clustered in flower heads, spikes or catkins (inflorescences), estimate the percentage of all individual flowers that are open.
Fruits One or more fruits are visible on the plant. For Cornus florida, the fruit is berry-like and changes from green to bright red.
How many fruits are present?
Ripe fruits Image of Ripe fruitsOne or more ripe fruits are visible on the plant. For Cornus florida, a fruit is considered ripe when it has turned bright red.
What percentage of all fruits (unripe plus ripe) on the plant are ripe?
Recent fruit or seed drop One or more mature fruits or seeds have dropped or been removed from the plant since your last visit. Do not include obviously immature fruits that have dropped before ripening, such as in a heavy rain or wind, or empty fruits that had long ago dropped all of their seeds but remained on the plant.
How many mature fruits have dropped seeds or have completely dropped or been removed from the plant since your last visit?
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