One good clue that spring is here is when the dogwoods start to flower, you might get a few early ones coming out in February but usually March is the time. This year (2012) it has been kind of springy already in early February but we could be in for few more frosts. The flowering cycle of a plant is called its "phenology" (though the term applies to other cyclic natural phenomena) you can find out more about when plants normally flower in our region at a website about Panhandle plants . Often the last frost in Tallahassee is in March....though they may occur in April. Say good-bye to cool-cold nights.
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| Cornus florida habit |
According to the Florida Natural Area Inventory plant is typical of slope forests, scrub, uplands and sandhills, suggesting this beauty is a pretty versatile midstory tree in Florida forests. One characteristic that these vegetation types share is reasonable drainage, often with sandy soils or better than average topographic relief (for Florida).
Description: Small deciduous tree to 12 m with blocky bark. Flowers: Showy yellow heads of twenty or so miniature flowers are in the middle of creamy white subtended bracts that look like petals. The variety C. florida var. rubra has showy pink bracts. Fruit: An ellipsoid bright red berry. Leaves:3-10cm long and 2-7 cm wide opposite, broadly elliptic.
Similar to: the blocky bark can look like black haw (Viburnum rufidulum) and persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), the flowers are pretty clear indicators but the leaves can look like other dogwoods (especially stiff cornel dogwood; Cornus foemina.
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| Cornus florida flowers (the yellow part are various small flowers) with larger white bracts that look like what we typically think of as a "flower". |
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| Flowering dogwood fruit. |
A map of dogwood (click on the points to see more information).
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