Red Osier Dogwood – Cornus sericea
Red-osier dogwood is a woody deciduous shrub generally 1.4-6 m (4.6-20 ft) tall. The bark and twigs are reddish to purple and fairly smooth from autumn to late spring; after the leaves have fallen, the deep burgundy branches add color to the winter landscape. The bark, twigs, and leaves are bright green in spring through summer. The inflorescence is a cyme, with 2-3 mm (0.08-0.12 in) white to cream-colored flowers. The white berries are smooth on the faces, furrowed on the sides.
Red osier dogwood is a quintissential North American native, inhabiting wetlands and other moist soils in dense thickets from Alaska to Newfoundland, south to California, Illinois, and West Virginia [2].
Native Americans used red osier extensively in their pharmacopeia, clothing, and basket-weaving.
Redosier dogwood loves soils that are saturated for at least a portion of the growing season. It is common on the edges of lakes, ponds, within wetlands, and along streams. Not as tolerant of long-term root saturation as are some other shrubs, dogwood seems to prefer wetland margins where soils are nitrogen-rich, saturated, and shallowly inundated in the spring, and may be completely dry by late summer.
Popular as an ornamental shrub, primarily because of its winter interest. An extremely hardy and adaptable plant, it can be grown in wet areas including intermittent standing water. Small white flowers in early spring are followed by light green foliage which flutters in the wind and turns an attractive honey-gold in autumn [2].
The fleshy fruits of dogwoods are very valuable to wildlife, particularly in the Northeast. The fruit ripens in late summer, and besides being available through the fall, some of the berries may persist on the plants into the winter months.
Birds known to eat the fruit include: wood ducks, eastern bluebirds, cardinals, catbirds, longtailed chats, crows, purple finches, yellow-shafted flickers, crested flycatchers, grosbeaks, kingbirds, American magpies, mockingbirds, crested mynah birds, orioles, robins, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, European starlings, tree swallows, scarlet tanagers, brown thrashers, thrushes, vireos, pine warblers, cedar waxwings, and woodpeckers. The shrubs provide excellent nesting habitat for songbirds [3].
Family Betulaceae – Alder, Birch & Hornbeam
Trees Index
Tree Encyclopedia / North American Insects & Spiders
Online since 2002
