Flowering Dogwood

The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is perfect on the patio of Dodona Manor, where the Marshalls enjoyed many of their meals. It is one of the most beautiful eastern North American trees with bold spring flowers, red fruit and scarlet autumn foliage. The flowering dogwood is a popular and important ornamental tree used in landscaping. It has a short trunk and crown of spreading branches. Its flowers range from white to pink to scarlet. The dogwood tree has both male and female reproductive organs and therefore self-pollinates by producing seeds on its own. 

The wood of the flowering dogwood is hard and extremely shock resistant. It is useful for making specialty products like weaving shuttles, spools, small pulleys, mallet heads and jeweler’s blocks. 

The flowering dogwood is not just beautiful, it’s also useful. It was and can be used today as medicine. People use it for headaches, fatigue, fever and ongoing diarrhea. It can also be used to improve strength, to stimulate appetite and as a tonic. Some people apply flowering dogwood directly to the skin for boils and wounds.  Native Americans used the aromatic bark and roots as a remedy for malaria. They also made an infusion from the flowers for fevers and colic and extracted a red dye from the roots.

The flowering dogwood can reach 30 feet in height and its trunk can reach a diameter of 8 inches. The leaves are elliptical with edges that are slightly wavy.

The dogwood flowers have four yellowish-green petals. In the center of the flower are several tiny flower buds tightly crowded in a head and surrounded by four large, broadly elliptical white petal-like bracts. Other varieties are pink or scarlet.

The dogwood produces bright red berries. The fruit is poisonous to humans but is enjoyed by a variety of birds including the northern mockingbird, eastern bluebird, northern cardinals and hermit thrush.