Flowering Dogwood

Featured Image Credit: “20100509125707 Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) – Bald Mountain RA, Oakland Co, MI” by pverdonk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Definitely one of my favorite Virginia trees! There are a lot on the road-edge and forest here which makes me very happy.

One of the ways I identify this tree in the winter is both by it’s size and shape (not too big, and kind of crooked in growth pattern) and also the bark is grayish and to me looks like alligator skin.

Alternate Names:  Virginia Dogwood, Florida Dogwood, White Cornel, Arrowwood, American Boxwood, False Box, St. Peter's Crown, Corona De San Pedro
Size: Up to 33' tall
Family: Cornaceae (Dogwood Family)
Habitat: Thickets, Stream, river banks, Shaded woods. Deciduous woods; thickets; bluffs; wood edges; dry uplands.
Identification: Single- or multi-trunked tree with a spreading crown and long-lasting, showy, white and pink spring blooms. A lovely, small, flowering tree with short trunk and crown of spreading or nearly horizontal branches. Graceful, horizontal-tiered branching; red fruits; and scarlet-red fall foliage are other landscape attributes. From wildflower.org. Blooms March-June
Uses: "The hard wood is extremely shock-resistant and useful for making weaving-shuttles. It is also made into spools, small pulleys, mallet heads, and jeweler's blocks. Native Americans used the aromatic bark and roots as a remedy for malaria and extracted a red dye from the roots." From wildflower.org