Read About the Dogwood Family
DOGWOOD FAMILY (Cornaceae)
Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida
Flowers--(Apparently) large, white or pinkish, the four
conspicuous parts simulating petals, notched at the top, being really bracts
of an involucre below the true flowers, clustered in the centre, which are
very small, greenish yellow, 4-parted, perfect. Stem: A large shrub
or small tree, wood hard, bark rough. Leaves: Opposite oval,
entire-edged, petioled, paler underneath. Fruit: Clusters of
egg-shaped scarlet berries, tipped with the persistent calyx.
Preferred Habitat--Woodlands, rocky thickets, wooded roadsides.
Flowering Season--April-June.
Distribution--Maine to Florida, west to Ontario and Texas.
Has Nature's garden a more decorative ornament than the Flowering
Dogwood, whose spreading flattened branches whiten the woodland borders in
May as if an untimely snowstorm had come down upon them, and in autumn paint
the landscape with glorious crimson, scarlet, and gold, dulled by comparison
only with the clusters of vivid red berries among the foliage? Little wonder
that nurserymen sell enormous numbers of these small trees to be planted on
lawns. The horrors of pompous monuments, urns, busts, shafts, angels, lambs,
and long-drawn-out eulogies in stone in many a cemetery are mercifully
concealed in part by these boughs, laden with blossoms of heavenly purity.
"Let dead names be eternized in dead stone,
But living names by living shafts be known.
Plant thou a tree whose leaves shall sing
Thy deeds and thee each fresh, recurrent spring."
When the Massachusetts farmers think they hear the first brown thrasher
in April advising them to plant their Indian corn, reassuringly calling,
"Drop it, drop it--cover it up, cover it up--pull it up, pull it up, pull it
up" (Thoreau), they look to the dogwood flowers to confirm the thrasher's
advice before taking it.
The Low or Dwarf Cornel, or Bunchberry (C. canadensis), whose
scaly stem does its best to attain a height of nine inches, bears a whorl of
from four to six oval, pointed, smooth leaves at the summit. From the midst
of this whorl comes a cluster of minute greenish florets, encircled by four
to six large, showy, white petal-like bracts, quite like a small edition of
the Flowering Dogwood blossom. Tight clusters of round berries, that are
lifted upward on a gradually lengthened peduncle after the flowers fade
(May-July), brighten with vivid touches of scarlet, shadowy, mossy places in
cool, rich woods, where the dwarf cornels, with the partridge vine, twin
flower, gold thread, and fern, form the most charming of carpets.
Even more abundant is the Silky Cornel, Kinnikinnick, or Swamp Dogwood (C.
Amomum) found in low, wet ground, and beside streams, from Nebraska to
the Atlantic Ocean, south to Florida and north to New Brunswick. Its dull,
reddish twigs, oval or oblong leaves, rounded at the base, but tapering to a
point at the apex, and usually silky-downy with fine, brownish hairs
underneath (to prevent the pores from clogging with vapors arising from its
damp habitat); its rather compact, flat clusters of white flowers from May
to July, and its bluish berries are its distinguishing features. The Indians
loved to smoke its bark for its alleged tonic effect.
|
