Dogwood Fact Sheet

Young dogwoods have bright red stems in the fall winter and early spring which turn reddish brown in the summer.

Dogwood fact sheet.

This behavior creates thickets. Cornus racemosalam gray dogwood is a thickly branched slow growing dogwood seldom more than 6 feet high at maturity. The deeply ridged and broken bark resembles alligator hide. Its leaves are opposite taper pointed and oval.

It grows on fertile loamy soil in areas that provide enough moisture and shade. There are 30 to 50 species of dogwood that are native to temperate areas of north america and eurasia. If carefully treated a mature dogwood tree species such as the flowering dogwood may reach 40 feet in height. Its flowers which bloom in june or july are white and loosely clustered and its white fruit which appears in september and october is set off by bright red fruit stalks.

The tree displays medium growth averaging between 13 and 24 inches annually. Depending on the species of dogwood you plant you may have a short stout bush or a 25 foot tall tree. Dogwood canker discula destructiva is a fungal disease that causes leaf and twig blights and trunk cankers. This disease can kill flowering dogwood but fortunately it seems to occur at higher elevations than in south carolina.

Silky dogwood is a large shrub often 6 10 feet in height. Dogwood can be found in the evergreen forests or on the edges of deciduous forests. The growth habit is upright rounded but where stems are in contact with the ground roots are formed.