Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida): Spring's Early Pink, Red, Salmon, or White Pastels

Cornus florida is commonly known as flowering dogwood. Its synonymous scientific name, Benthamidia florida (L.) Spach, highlights its subgenus, Benthamidia. Flowering dogwood is in the family Cornaceae, which, among other traits, typically have branches with clusters of flowers on each stem (inflorescence). Cornus florida has two subspecies which distinguish its geographical occurrence.

Native to eastern North America, Cornus florida subspecies florida ranges from its northern extent in southern Maine and southern Ontario to its southern extent in northern Florida and west beyond the Florida panhandle all the way into eastern Texas.

A disjunct population thrives in eastern Mexico, in the northeastern state of Nuevo León  (Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo León) and in the east-central state of Veracruz (Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave).

With a survivable minimum temperature range of -20° to 20° Fahrenheit; -29° to -7° Celsius, flowering dogwood is placed in U.S. Department of Agriculture Hardiness Zones 5 to 8.

The other subspecies, Cornus florida subspecies urbiniana (Rose) Rickett, is native elsewhere in North America:

• in Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo León (“Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo Leon”) and
• in Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (“Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz of Ignacio de la Llave”),

which are in northeastern and east central Mexico, respectively.

This subspecies has a scientific synonym, Cornus urbiniana Rose.

Flowering dogwood is the state flower for two southern states:

• North Carolina
• Virginia.

In 1941, North Carolina named Cornus florida as its state flower.

The Commonwealth of Virginia selected flowering dogwood as its state flower in 1918.

Cornus florida is the state tree for:

• Missouri
• Virginia.

The "Show Me" state of Missouri selected Cornus florida as its state tree in 1955.

In 1956, Virginia further honored its native tree by designating Cornus florida as its state tree.

Flowers appear in early spring in southern locations. Each dogwood flower has four yellow-green petals. With their small flowers, numbering about twenty, clustering together into a flower-like structure, flowering dogwood exhibits the typical inflorescence of its family, Cornaceae.

The shape of these flower heads (pseudanthia, from Greek for “false flower”) is known as umbel because the pedicels (the stalks that attach each individual flower to the main stem of the flower head), with their equal lengths branching out from a common point, are reminiscent of the ribs of an umbrella.

Fanning out from the base of the flower head are four bracts (Latin: bractea “a thin plate of metal”), which are specialized leaflike parts. The bract’s rounded outline distinctively notches at its apex. Each bract is about two inches (five centimeters) in length.

The natural coloring for bracts is snow white, but other occasional colors in the wild are light pink or salmon.

Pink and red bracts are propagated by commercial nurseries.

Flowering dogwood leaves are simple, meaning that they are not subdivided as, for example, oak leaves are. Leaves are paired on opposite sides of the stem.

Broad at the base and tapering to a point, leaves are described as ovate (Latin: ovatus “egg-shaped”) and measure 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15 centimeters) in length.

Their width hovers from 1.5 to 3 inches (3.8 to 7.6 centimeters).

As a deciduous tree, flowering dogwood sheds its leaves seasonally in a process called abscission (Latin: ab “away” + scindere “to cut”). Their autumn color, signalling abscission, is in the red spectrum, from reddish brown to reddish purple.

Cornus florida bark is black, brown, or dark gray in color. Broken up into small rectangular or square plates, its bark is reminiscent of alligator skin.

With a maximum height of 10 to 30 feet (3 to 9.15 meters), flowering dogwood is an understory, a small tree that easily grows in the shade of taller trees below the forest canopy (the topmost area of the forest habitat as delineated by the crowns of the tallest trees).

Its spreading branches make its width exceed its height.

Flowering dogwood has a maximum lifespan of about 125 years.

Flowering dogwood trees’ graceful lines and pleasing appearance ensure their popularity as ornamentals, which are plants and trees that are cultivated, i.e., grown, for their decorative value. In addition to their ornamental asset, flowering dogwoods attract a variety of wildlife with their cafeteria-style offerings of scrumptious bark, flowers, fruit, leaves, seeds, and twigs.

At least thirty-six bird species, including ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), consume their fruit. Joining them in the fruit feast are mammals ranging from chipmunks (genus Tamias) and squirrels (family Sciuridae) to beaver (genus Castor), rabbits (family Leporidae), and skunks (family Mephitidae) and even black bears (Ursus americanus) and deer (family Cervidae).

Both rabbits and deer graze dogwood foliage and twigs.

Prior to the invention of plastic shuttles, dogwood was harvested primarily for manufacturing textile weaving shuttles. As a hard, smooth, close-textured wood, Cornus florida’s resilience and durability are desirable in specialty products such as jewelers’ blocks, malletheads, small pulleys, and spools.

Historically a tea of dogwood bark substituted for scarce quinine in the treatment of malaria during the War Between the States (April 12, 1861 - April 9, 1865) in the southern United States. The bark’s astringency served as an effective febrifuge in treating fevers and an effective anti-diarrhetic. Also bark was applied in a softened, moist mush as a hot poultice (Latin: puls, pultes “porridge”) for sores.

Native Americans cleaned their teeth by chewing dogwood twigs, which after a few minutes split the fibers at the ends into a fine, soft brush.

Cornus florida gently unfurls its loveliness in a profusion of white or pastel. This gracious tree casts a sweet spell on its beholders. It is the state tree of both Missouri and Virginia, and its delicate flower is North Carolina's state flower.

Indeed, the memory of its soft welcome of spring lingers, and even a first lady of the United States was enchanted by the artistry of its harmonious lines and colors. Wife of the twenty-third president, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison (October 1, 1832 – October 25, 1892) was taught watercolor painting by James Henry Moser (January 1, 1854 - November 10, 1913). Artistically, she enjoyed floral motifs. She painted "Flowering Dogwood" during her brief tenure as first lady, from March 4, 1889 until her death from tuberculosis on October 25, 1892.

As evinced in First Lady Caroline Harrison's painting, the intrinsic loveliness of flowering dogwood is easily evoked in art. Flowering dogwood is also photogenic as the camera finds no distractions or disruptions in the simple interplay of the tree's outlines and colors.

Artistic representations honor its worthiness as a visual subject, but they can never replace the serene vista of flowering dogwoods in their element in the natural landscape as they announce spring's awakening.

My special thanks to:

• Talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet;

• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Bigelow, Jacob. American Medical Botany, Being a Collection of the Native Medicinal Plants of the United States, Containing Their Botanical History and Chemical Analysis, and Properties and Uses in Medicine, Diet and the Arts, with Coloured Engravings. Vol. II. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1818.

Brand, Mark H. (Dr.) “Cornus florida Flowering Dogwood.” UConn Plant Database. University of Connecticut Department of Plant Science, Storrs CT.

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte. Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: A Historical Survey with Special Reference to the Eastern Indian Tribes. New York: Dover Publications, 1989.

Gilman, Edward F., and Dennis G. Watson. "Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Chief’ / ‘Cherokee Chief’ Flowering Dogwood." Environmental Horticulture Department Fact Sheet ST-186. Gainesville: University of Florida, November 1993.

• Available at: hort.ifas.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/tree_fact_sheets/corflob.pdf

McLemore, B.F. “Cornus florida L., Flowering Dogwood.” Silvics of North America. Volume 2: Hardwoods. Agriculture Handbook 654. Washington, DC: U.S.D.A. Forest Service, December 1990.