Cornus florida, L.

Form.—Height 15-35 feet, diameter 4-12 inches; trunk short, not often straight; crown broad and round-topped.

Leaves.—Opposite, simple, ovate, 3-5 inches long, tapered to an acute apex, wedge-shaped at the base, wavy or entire on margin, bright green above, paler beneath, smooth; mid-rib and primary veins prominent.

Flowers.—May; perfect; greenish, small, arranged in a dense cluster and surrounded by a showy, white (or rarely pinkish), 4-bracted corolla-like involucre. The white involucre and the cluster of small flowers which it surrounds are frequently mistaken for a single flower.

Fruit.—Ripens in September or October; a scarlet ovoid drupe, with a grooved stone, borne solitary or in clusters of 2-5 on a stalk. Undeveloped pistillate flowers often persist at base of fruit.

Bark.—On old trunks broken into quadrangular scales, reddish-brown to blackish.

Wood.—Hard, heavy, strong, tough, pale red-brown or pinkish, with lighter sapwood.

Range.—Ontario, Michigan and Massachusetts to Florida, west to Texas and Missouri.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Common in all parts of the State.

Habitat.—Prefers moist, well-drained soils of slopes and bottoms.

Notes.—This well-known tree is prized for its wood which is used for many purposes about the farm and is also manufactured into shuttles, wedges, golf-stick heads, engravers’ blocks, brush blocks, tool handles and for turnery. As an ornamental tree it beautifies the native woods or the lawn by its clusters of white-bracted flowers, and later in the season by its scarlet fruits.