CORNACEAE - - Dogwood Family

Cornus florida Linnaeus — Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) - Flowering Dogwood is usually a small tree, 10 to 30 ft. high, but the National Champion (from Clarke, GA) is 67 ft. tall. The leaves are about 3 1/2 in. long, margin entire, secondary veins parallel to the margin (arcuate), a character shared by the other species of dogwoods. The actual flowers are small and inconspicuous in a flat-topped cluster, but the four large petal-like bracts are very striking and lead most people to believe that the entire cluster is a single flower. The fruit is a bright red drupe, about 1/3 in. long. The bark is broken by deep fissures into small blocks, the whole looking like alligator hide.

Habitat:

Dry to moist forests and woodlands.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

The range of Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

The Georgia range of Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood)

Zomlefer, W.B., J.R. Carter, & D.E. Giannasi. 2014 (and ongoing). The Atlas of Georgia Plants. University of Georgia Herbarium (Athens, Georgia) and Valdosta State University Herbarium (Valdosta, Georgia). Available at: http://www.georgiaherbaria.org/.