Pacific Dogwood
| Pacific Dogwood | ||||||||||||||||
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| Pacific Dogwood flowerhead; note the dense head of small flowers surrounded by large white bracts | ||||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||
| Cornus nuttallii Audubon |
The Pacific Dogwood Cornus nuttallii (syn. Benthamidia nuttallii) is a species of dogwood native to western North America from southern British Columbia south to California. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching 10–25 m tall.
The leaves are opposite, simple oval, 8–12 cm long and 5–8 cm broad. The flowers are individually small and inconspicuous, 2–3 mm across, produced in a dense, rounded, greenish-white flowerhead 2 cm diameter; the 4–8 large white "petals" are actually bracts, each bract 4–7 cm long and broad. The fruit is a compound pink-red berry about 3 cm diameter, containing 50–100 small seeds; it is edible, though not very palatable.
It is the provincial flower of British Columbia, and is protected by law there.
Like the related Flowering Dogwood, it is very susceptible to dogwood anthracnose, a disease caused by the fungus Discula destructiva. This has killed many of the larger plants in the wild and also restricts its use as an ornamental tree.
Categories: Cornales