Flowering Dogwood

Description:

Flowering dogwoods grow to a height of 35 to 40 feet (10 to 12 m). It is a shrub or small, low-branched tree usually with a flat-topped crown, oval or ovate leaves, about 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm) long and 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm) wide. Creamy-white flowers with 4 petals each appear in early spring. A deciduous tree (looses its leaves in the fall), dogwoods are most often found growing in forested, shady areas under other hardwoods and pines. Flowers are not very big, but they look big, because they have large petal-like objects, called bracts, coming from them. These large white bracts look like part of the flower. Flowering Dogwood fruits are long berry-like drupes. These shiny red fruits can grow up to 1/2 inch long. The fruits are eaten by many animals, and last from September through December.

Habitat:

East Texas piney woods

Notes:

The genus name “Cornus” means horn and refers to the very hard wood of the tree. Years ago the hard wood of dogwoods was valued for use in golf clubs, pulleys, engraving blocks and tool handles.