Flowering dogwood, a symbol of Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri

Flower and tree

Virginia chose the flowering dogwood as its floral emblem in 1918, its first state emblem after the seal and the flag, and in 1956 it named the same tree its state tree. North Carolina adopted “the dogwood” as its state flower in 1941, citing its abundance in every part of the state; the law names no species, but the flowering dogwood is the one pictured. Missouri named the flowering dogwood its state tree in 1955.

How to recognize it

The flowering dogwood is a small understory tree, usually 15 to 40 feet tall, with low, spreading, layered branches. What looks like one large flower is a cluster of tiny true flowers ringed by four showy bracts, normally white and sometimes pink, each with a notch at its tip. It blooms in spring, before or as the leaves come out. The leaves are opposite and oval, with veins that curve toward the tip, and they turn red in fall, when clusters of glossy red fruits ripen.

Where it grows

The flowering dogwood is native to the eastern United States, from southern Maine and Ontario to northern Florida and west to eastern Texas and Missouri. It grows in the understory of deciduous woods and along forest edges, from the mountains to the coastal plain, and it is a popular garden tree.

A disease in the mountains

Dogwood anthracnose, a fungal disease, has hit the tree hard at higher elevations. In Virginia it was first found in 1988, and a 1992 state report found it most severe in the mountain counties and much less so in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain; in North Carolina it is a serious threat above about 1,800 feet.

Food for wildlife

The red fruits are poisonous to people, but at least 36 species of birds eat them, along with wild turkeys, deer, squirrels and other animals.