Dogwood Tree Pictures, Detailed Information on the Dogwood Tree Species
Welcome to our dogwood tree pictures page. On this page you will find lots of nice pictures of dogwood trees. You will also find a lot of wonderful information on dogwood trees, including information about the dogwood tree species, planting information, and much more. This is valuable and useful information that can help you to learn more about the dogwood tree.
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Here is some general information on the dogwood tree.
The genus Cornus comprise a group of 30 to 50 species of mostly deciduous trees and shrubs in the family Cornaceae commonly known as dogwoods. Some are herbaceous perennials; a few of the woody species are evergreen.
The name "dog-tree" entered English vocabulary by 1548, and had been further transformed to "dogwood" by 1614. Once the name dogwood was affixed to the tree, it soon acquired a secondary name as the Hound's Tree, while the fruits came to be known as dogberries or houndberries (the latter a name also for the berries of Black nightshade and alluding to Hecate's hounds). One theory advances that "dogwood" was derived from dagwood, from the use of the slender stems of very hard wood for making 'dags' (daggers, skewers, arrows).
Various Cornus are ubiquitous in American gardens: Donald Wyman stated "There is a dogwood for almost every part of the U.S. except the hottest and dryest areas" (Wyman's Garden Encyclopedia, s.v. "Cornus"). In England, the lack of sharp winters and hot summers makes Cornus florida very shy of flowering. Dense and fine-grained, dogwood timber was highly prized for making loom shuttles, tool handles and other small items that required a very hard and strong wood. Though it is tough for woodworking, some artisans favor dogwood for small projects such as walking canes, longbows, mountain dulcimers and fine inlays. It was an excellent substitute for persimmonwood in golf clubheads ("woods").
Most dogwood species have opposite leaves and a few, like C. alternifolia and C. controversa, have alternate leaves. The fruit of all species is a drupe with one or two seeds, often brightly colorful and sometimes edible. Flowers have four parts.
Many species in subgenus Swida are stoloniferous shrubs, growing along waterways. Several of these are used in naturalizing landscape plantings, especially the species with bright red or bright yellow stems, which color up in winter. Most of the species in subgenus Benthamidia are small trees used as ornamental plants. As flowering trees, they are of rare elegance and beauty, comparable to Carolina silverbell, Canadian serviceberry, and the Eastern Redbud for their ornamental qualities.
The fruit of several species in the subgenera Cornus and Benthamidia is edible, though without much flavour. The berries of those in subgenus Swida are mildly toxic to people, though readily eaten by birds.
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