A Description of the Dogwood Tree Species

Size and Form

• In many cases, flowering dogwoods have multiple trunks. Dogwoods are never large, remaining between 20 and 30 feet tall. Trunk diameters rarely are wider than 8 inches on this understory tree. The branches often grow horizontally from the trunk, so that the canopy of the flowering dogwood has a flattened appearance. This is never more obvious than when the tree is in bloom.

Dogwood Flowers

• Dogwood flowers are very small and inconspicuous. They are about 1/4 inch across and yellowish-green. Ornamentally, they are of little value to the landscape. However, the bracts surrounding them give the tree great appeal. Each bract is about 2 inches in length, with an indented notch at the end. The bracts on wild flowering dogwoods are always white, but the bracts of different dogwood cultivars, such as Cherokee Brave, are colors such as pink. The flowers emerge on a dogwood tree prior to the leaves opening up, usually during the middle of May.

Dogwood Foliage

• Once the flowers cease to bloom and the bracts begin to turn brownish and decompose before falling off, the leaves of the dogwood grow in. The foliage is elliptical to oval, growing between 3 and 6 inches long and as wide as 3 inches. The leaves are green and feature six or seven veins running parallel to the edges. Autumn color of flowering dogwood foliage is often brilliant. The leaves turn such hues as red, purple and yellow before they fall off the twigs.

More Dogwood Characteristics

• Dogwood flowers turn into bright, glossy red fruits as long as 1/2 inch. These berries grow in groups of three or four, remaining on the dogwood well into winter or becoming food for wild birds. The bark of a flowering dogwood divides into a series of small, square-shaped blocks. It varies in color from dark shades of gray to black or brown. The University of Connecticut Plant Database notes the dogwood's bark brings to mind the rough skin found on an alligator.