olena
<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
- Joined
- May 12, 2001
Provincial Flower
Pacific Dogwood
Cornus nuttallii
Pacific Flowering Dogwood, Mountain Dogwood
Description Tree with dense, conical or rounded crown of often horizontal branches and with beautiful white flower clusters.
Height: 50' (15 m).
Diameter: 1' (0.3 m), rarely larger.
Leaves: opposite; 2 1/2-4 1/2" (6-11 cm) long, 1 1/4-2 3/4" (3-7 cm) wide. Elliptical, edges slightly wavy, with 5-6 long, curved veins on each side of midvein. Shiny green and nearly hairless above, paler with woolly hairs beneath; turning orange and red in autumn.
Bark: reddish-brown, thin, smooth or scaly.
Twigs: slender, light green and hairy when young, becoming dark red of blackish.
Flowers: 1/4" (6 mm) wide; with 4 greenish-yellow petals; many crowded together in a head 1" (2.5 cm) wide; bordered by usually 6 (sometimes 4-7) large, elliptical, short-pointed, white (sometimes pinkish), petal-like bracts 1 1/2-2 1/2" (4-6 cm) long, altogether forming a huge "flower" 4-6" (10-15 cm) wide; in spring and early summer, often again in late summer or autumn.
Fruit: 1/2" (12 mm) long; elliptical, shiny red or orange; thin, mealy, bitter pulp; stone containing 1-2 seeds; many crowded together in head 1 1/2" (4 cm) across; maturing in autumn.
Habitat Moist soils in mountains in understory of coniferous forests.
Range SW. British Columbia south to W. Oregon and in mountains to S. California; to 6000' (1829 m).
Discussion Pacific Dogwood is one of the most handsome native ornamental trees on the Pacific Coast, with very showy flowers and fruit. The head of flowers with surrounding, petal-like bracts resembles a huge flower and is commonly so called. The "flower" is larger than that of the eastern Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida L.), usually having 6 bracts instead of 4. John James Audubon (1780-1851), the American ornithologist and artist, who painted this tree in his famous work Birds of America, named it for its collector, Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), the British-American botanist and ornithologist.
Pacific Dogwood
Cornus nuttallii
Pacific Flowering Dogwood, Mountain Dogwood
Description Tree with dense, conical or rounded crown of often horizontal branches and with beautiful white flower clusters.
Height: 50' (15 m).
Diameter: 1' (0.3 m), rarely larger.
Leaves: opposite; 2 1/2-4 1/2" (6-11 cm) long, 1 1/4-2 3/4" (3-7 cm) wide. Elliptical, edges slightly wavy, with 5-6 long, curved veins on each side of midvein. Shiny green and nearly hairless above, paler with woolly hairs beneath; turning orange and red in autumn.
Bark: reddish-brown, thin, smooth or scaly.
Twigs: slender, light green and hairy when young, becoming dark red of blackish.
Flowers: 1/4" (6 mm) wide; with 4 greenish-yellow petals; many crowded together in a head 1" (2.5 cm) wide; bordered by usually 6 (sometimes 4-7) large, elliptical, short-pointed, white (sometimes pinkish), petal-like bracts 1 1/2-2 1/2" (4-6 cm) long, altogether forming a huge "flower" 4-6" (10-15 cm) wide; in spring and early summer, often again in late summer or autumn.
Fruit: 1/2" (12 mm) long; elliptical, shiny red or orange; thin, mealy, bitter pulp; stone containing 1-2 seeds; many crowded together in head 1 1/2" (4 cm) across; maturing in autumn.
Habitat Moist soils in mountains in understory of coniferous forests.
Range SW. British Columbia south to W. Oregon and in mountains to S. California; to 6000' (1829 m).
Discussion Pacific Dogwood is one of the most handsome native ornamental trees on the Pacific Coast, with very showy flowers and fruit. The head of flowers with surrounding, petal-like bracts resembles a huge flower and is commonly so called. The "flower" is larger than that of the eastern Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida L.), usually having 6 bracts instead of 4. John James Audubon (1780-1851), the American ornithologist and artist, who painted this tree in his famous work Birds of America, named it for its collector, Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), the British-American botanist and ornithologist.
I'd love to see one of them! I guess I have to go out west to do that. I have a brother who lives in B.C. (Victoria), but I've never been out there. 
