FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



Cornus flotida L. 



April - May When the shadhush aiul ivdhud flowers are 



Rocky woods, river hills all hut past, and the fragile petals of the 



\\ ild plums have been scattered to the winds, 

 the (logwood llowers sjjrcad w hitt'ly beneath the sun. Since spring first 

 arrived, the dogwood bi-acts have been exjianding. All winter long on 

 the small trees there wcic round l)uds of pale gicy tipju'd with purplish. 

 "^1 hen as the lirst hint (if spi'ing canie and the sunshine grew wanner, 

 when till' wind at. la>t was in the xtulli. and the cardinals we ro singing, 

 th(^ dogwood bracts cur\iiig around cadi hud slowly opened. Like the 



immature wings of ;l newly emerged th. which expand to full size in 



a Jew mimites. the dogwood brait- now. dav after day. ac(|uire more ot 

 the true character of llowci-s. 



At lirst the llowers are wrinkled and grey-lavender, half an inch 

 long. 'J'hen they bleach to green-white or yellowish white until, on a 

 magnificent nuirning in late .\pril or .May. when birds are singing their 

 great spi-ingtime coiu-ei-t, the sun .-parkles upon the glistening white 

 buttei'lly llowers of the dogwood. 



The four bracts are now white. They form what a])])ears to be a 

 four-petaled llower, hut the true (lowers themselves are tiny, tid)ular. 

 and greenish yellow in a cluster in the ctuiter of the bracts But the 

 technicalities of whether the dogwood's spring pcM'formance deals in bracts 

 or in true flowers matter very little on a bright spring day when the 

 hills are s))lashed w ith dogwood snow. 



Dogwood follows the limestone and sandstone hills along the rivers 

 soutliward through Illinois, south through the southern hills and down 

 the Mississippi into the far .st)uth. 



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