Plant: White Dogwood Tree

Plant description

White dogwood is the native flowering dogwood, a spreading, rounded understory tree 15 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 30 feet wide. In early spring, before the leaves emerge, small green true flowers are surrounded by four white petal like bracts, followed by glossy red drupes in fall and red to reddish purple foliage. It prefers partial shade, especially afternoon shade, in moist, well drained, acidic soil high in organic matter, and its dark bark breaks into small scaly blocks with age. Songbirds, grouse, turkey and small mammals eat the fruit and it is the larval host for the spring azure butterfly.

Flowers

Blooms in early spring before leaf out; the true flowers are small, green and insignificant, surrounded by four petal like bracts that give the appearance of one large flower.

Foliage

Simple opposite leaves 3 to 6 inches long with entire margins and six to seven pairs of veins that curve from the base of the leaf to the tip, turning red to reddish purple in fall.

Fruit

Glossy bright red oval drupes about half an inch long in tight clusters of three or four, bitter and inedible to people but heavily eaten by birds.

Bark & stems

Attractive dark gray, brown or nearly black bark broken into small scaly blocks as the tree matures; young stems are red to purple and smooth.

Light

Morning Sun, Dappled/Filtered Light

Pruning

Prune after it flowers but before next year's flower buds form in July.

Native range

Southeastern Canada through eastern North America to eastern Mexico

Plant details