418 TREES IN WINTER 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



Boxwood, Dogwood, Flowering Cornel. 

 Cornus florida L. 



HABIT — A small tree 15-30 ft. in height, with a trunk diameter of 

 6-10 inches; developing- a low spreading bushy head with slender up- 

 right or spreading branches and divergent sinously curted branchlets 

 turning upward near the end and bearing on their upper sides clusters 

 of fruiting twigs terminated by large conspicuous erect flower buds. 



BARK — Dark brown to blackish, ridged and broken into small 4-sided 

 or rounded plate-like scales, resembling alligator leather in appear- 

 ance. 



TAVIGS — Slender, bright red or yellowish-green, smooth or generally 

 appearing more or less mealy from minute closely appressed gray 

 hairs; with bitter taste. LENTICELS — inconspicuous. PITH — gritty, 

 granular. 



LEAF-SCARS — Opposite, on twigs of the season raised on bases of 

 leaf-stalks with deep ^''-shaped notch between, on older growth 

 practically encircling twig. STIPULE-SCARS — absent. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS — 3, in leaf-scars of the season often confluent and first seen in 

 section through persistent base of leaf-stalk. 



BUDS — Lateral buds minute, covered by persistent bases of leaf- 

 stalks; terminal leaf-buds flattened-conical, red, generally downy at 

 least at apex, covered by a single pair of opposite pointed scales 

 rounded at back and joined below for % their length; flowering 

 buds very abundant, terminal, large, spherical to inverted flat turnip- 

 shaped, 4-8 mm. broad, covered by two opposite pairs of bud-scales, 

 the first 2-3 pairs of leaves below the flower buds generally reduced to 

 narrow-pointed persistent scales. 



FRUIT — Scarlet, oblong, about 1.5 cm. long, f.eshy, with a grooved 

 stone, clustered, ripening in October and generally not remaining on 

 the tree during winter. 



COMPARISONS — The Flowering Dogwood differs from its relative the 

 Alternate-leaved Dogwood [Cornus alternifolia L.] by its opposite leaf- 

 scars, from the Bush Maples, — the Striped and the Mountain — which it 

 somewhat resembles in twig characters, by its alligator bark, the 

 presence of but a single pair of scales to terminal leaf-bud, by the 

 persistent bases of leaf-stalks covering the lateral buds and by the 

 generally abundant large flower buds. 



DISTRIBUTIOIV — Woodlands, rocky hillsides, moist, gravelly ridges, 

 frequently cultivated as an ornamental tree. Provinces of Quebec and 

 Ontario; south to Florida; west to Minnesota and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — Fayette Ridge, Kenebec county; New 

 Hampshire — along the Atlantic coast and very near the Connecticut 

 river, rarely farther north than its junction with the West river; 

 Vermont — southern and southwestern sections, rare; Massachusetts — 

 occasional throughout the state, common in the Connecticut river 

 valley, frequent eastward; Connecticut — occasional, local or frequent; 

 Rhode Island — common. 



WOOD — Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, brown sometimes chang- 

 ing to shades of green and red, with lighter colored sapwood of 30-40 

 layers of annual growth; largely used in turnery, for the bearings of 

 machinery, the hubs of small wheels, barrel hoops, the handles of 

 tools and occasionally for engravers' blocks. 



