One of the most notable flowers of the Ozark’s spring is also the official Missouri state tree. Cornus florida, commonly known as flowering dogwood, begins blooming shortly after the redbud, usually overlapping with this other native flowering tree.
The flowering dogwood has four petals, four light yellow stamens with four large white bracts. Each bract has a large creamy white terminal with a purple tip. There are some flowering dogwood trees with pink bracts rather than white bracts, but these are a rare find in native areas.
There are some native pink flowering dogwoods found today in parts of Missouri. The pink flowering dogwoods sold in nurseries today are said to have originated in the past 100 years from a cutting from a single native pink flowering tree found in Tennessee.
Flowering dogwood trees are typically understory trees found in hardwood forests. The diameter of dogwoods is typically just a few inches, but some specimens may reach about eight inches. Height and width vary depending upon where the tree is growing, but a very large dogwood would be 40 feet in height.
Dogwoods have simple oval shaped leaves that are shiny green on the top and paler on the bottom. They are three to five inches long. In the autumn the leaves should turn a deep maroon.
The word Cornus comes from the Latin word cornu which means “a horn” referring to the hardness of the wood. Florida, in Latin, means “flowering.” Tough, splinter free dogwoods were used to make skewers to hold meat together while cooking. Native Americans also made a scarlet dye from the roots of the dogwood tree.
In addition to beautiful spring flowers, the flowering dogwood tree also has a lovely bright red fruit seed in the fall. Shiny, in clusters of two to six, these half-inch long red fruits are a favorite of birds – notably robins, mockingbirds and turkeys.
It’s important to note that dogwoods for the garden landscape should be nursery grown and not collected in the wild. Dogwood roots can be severely damaged by digging which makes them vulnerable to disease and pests. Don’t attempt to collect these trees in the wild.
Specimen plantings of dogwoods will do best in open areas with full sun a nd good drainage. A dogwood can develop into a tree that provides fabulous year round beauty in the garden landscape.
Questions or comments related to gardening? Contact Joleen at missourigardener@hotmail.com.