Cornus sericea
Cornus florida
American dogwood, cornouiller stolonifère, Hart rouge, red willow, red-osier dogwood, redtwig dogwood
flowering dogwood
clustered, branches occasionally arching to the ground and rooting at nodes;
bark yellow to red, not corky, loosely verrucose;
branchlets bright red, reddish brown, maroon, or green, occasionally green in winter and maroon in summer, appressed-hairy when young;
lenticels protruding on 2d year branches, area surrounding them not suffused with purple on older branches;
pith white.
petiole 5–38 mm;
blade lanceolate, elliptic, or ovate, 3.5–20 × 1.5–12 cm, base cuneate, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surface white, hairs appressed except near secondary vein axils, tufts of erect hairs present in axils of secondary veins, adaxial surface green, hairs appressed, sparse;
secondary veins 5–7 per side, most arising from proximal 1/2, tertiary veins not prominent.
petiole 3–20 mm;
blade ovate, elliptic, or obovate, 5–12 × 2–7 cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex abruptly acuminate, abaxial surface whitish, appressed-hairy, tufts of erect hairs present in axils of secondary veins, adaxial surface dark green, appressed-hairy;
secondary veins 5–7 per side, most arising from proximal 1/2.
flat-topped, 3–6 cm diam., peduncle 20–40 mm;
branches and pedicels green to yellow-green, turning maroon in fruit.
flat-topped, 1–2 cm diam., 15–30-flowered, subtended by 2 pairs of cataphylls;
peduncle 10–20 mm;
petaloid bracts 4, surrounding and enclosing inflorescence through winter, white or tinged with red and with brown or white callous at apex, obovate to obcordate, 2–6 × 1–4.5 cm, apex rounded or emarginate.
hypanthium densely appressed-hairy;
sepals 0.2–0.6 mm;
petals white to cream, 2.5–4 mm.
hypanthium appressed-hairy;
sepals 0.5–0.8 mm;
petals cream or yellow-green, 3–3.5 mm.
white, globose or subglobose, 6–10 mm diam.;
stone subglobose, laterally compressed, 4–6 × 4–6 × 1.5–3 mm, furrowed laterally, apex rounded.
usually red, rarely yellow, drying black, spreading from each other, round in cross section, 13–18 × 6–9 mm;
stone ellipsoid, 10–12 × 4–7 mm, smooth.
= 22.
= 44.
Cornus sericea
Cornus florida
As the synonymy implies, Cornus sericea has received considerable attention from taxonomists wishing to subdivide the species, presumably in order to make it more comprehensible. Most of the divisions have been based upon indumentum and stone differences, although habit has also been used. Although one of the synonyms and one of the common names imply a stoloniferous habit, the species is not stoloniferous; evidently, branch tips infrequently arching to the ground and rooting at the nodes led to confusion regarding the growth habit. H. W. Rickett (1944b) examined the morphology of the various forms, varieties, and subspecies, and found extensive overlap using fruit shape and indumentum differences. It is not known whether the variation is due to primary differentiation or secondary intergradation, and the complex is treated here as a single species. There is little doubt that the European species C. alba Linnaeus is closely related to C. sericea and should be included in any future studies of this species complex.
The name Cornus stolonifera has sometimes been applied to C. sericea (for example, H. W. Rickett 1944b) because the description by Linnaeus of the latter could apply to several currently recognized species. F. R. Fosberg (1942) lectotypified C. sericea, establishing that it applies to this species.
Cornus sericea is commonly planted as an ornamental and occasionally escapes; plants in suburban areas and in highly acidic soils are suspected as non-natural occurrences. Putative hybrids between C. sericea and C. rugosa have been called C. ×slavinii Rehder, and are reported from Maine, New York, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Wisconsin.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Mexican populations of Cornus florida sometimes have been treated as C. urbinia Rose or C. florida subsp. urbinia (Rose) Rickett, distinguished primarily by bract size, shape, and apical cohesion following expansion. North American and Mexican populations overlap in these characters and are treated here as a single taxon.
Cornus florida, the state tree of Missouri and Virginia and the state flower of North Carolina, is an understory tree that can form spectacular displays when flowering. Cultivars with pink to red bracts are often planted as ornamentals. Dogwood anthracnose is causing serious declines in C. florida throughout its range.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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