Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Gray Dogwood is a shrub, usually not over 6 feet high, forming a thicket. Stems are mostly smooth but with some wart-ish bumps, and gray except for the newer twigs which are reddish-brown and have pale lenticular lenticels.

Leaves are opposite, entire, stalked, ovate to lance shape and taper to a pointed tip, pale green on the underside. The lateral veins are evenly spaced and tend to curve to the leaf tip. Leaves turn to a deep reddish purple in Autumn contrasting with the whitish drupes and their red stalks.

The inflorescence is a branched cluster that is usually more elongated than round, sometimes with a convex top or a pyramidal shape, always at the end of stems, blooming in early summer.

The flowers are perfect, small, each about 1/4 inch wide, 4-part with pale white spreading lance-shaped petals. The calyx has 4 short teeth. There are 4 stamens with yellow anthers placed alternate with the petals,and one pistil with a single greenish-yellow style that has a blunt tip. The ovary is a deep yellow color.

Fruit: Fertile flowers produce a globular, ellipsoid shaped drupe, 4 to 8 mm in diameter, green initially but turning white in the fall. Each flower stalk, which was originally white like the flower, turns to a conspicuous red as the fruit form and matures, as do the branches of the panicle itself. Each drupe usually contains 1 hard stone seed, 3 to 6.5 mm, slightly pointed. Seed germination requires at least 60 days of cold stratification.

Habitat: In the Upland Garden it has been considered a plant that needs to be controlled by the periodic prairie burn. It is commonly found in Hennepin County. The plant itself will form thickets from the root's rhizomatous system via underground runners. Propagation can also be by seedlings planted before early summer. The plant will tolerate shade but does best in the open with sun and only in sun will you get the contrasting fall colors of leaves and fruit. Soil moisture should range from wet mesic to dry mesic.

Names: The genus, Cornus, is from the Latin cormu which refers to a 'horn'. Most references believe that name was applied as a reference to the density of the wood of this genus, which also includes the boxwoods. As to the common name, Dogwood is very dense and was once used for loom shuttles and spindles and in old English "Dagwood" referring to woods used in making daggers, skewers, and arrows. The Spindle Tree (Euonymus atropurpureus) is another such species which was referred to by some as “dogwood”. (Ref. #7).

Cornus is also the old Latin name for the cornelian cherry, Cornus mas. The species, racemosa, is applied to a plant having a raceme - that is a central stalk bearing a cluster of flowers each on its own stalk - as this plant has, but due to the branching it should be called a panicle. The author name for the plant classification, ‘Lam.’ is for Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) French naturalist and biologist, an early proponent of evolution who among other things, published the 3 volume Flore francaise. In earlier years this species was known as Cornus paniculata.

Comparisons: There are four Dogwoods in the Garden. All have similar looking flowers. An identification key with comparison link is presented below these photos.