''Cornus racemosa'', the northern swamp dogwood, gray dogwood, or panicle dogwood, is a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

by plant native to southeastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

. It is a member of the dogwood genus ''

Cornus ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrub ...

'' and the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Cornaceae The Cornaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants in the order Cornales. The family contains approximately 85 species in two genera, ''Alangium'' and ''Cornus''. They are mostly trees and shrubs, which may be deciduous or evergreen, alt ...

Description

Gray dogwood grows high, rarely to . It often sends up suckers from underground

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s, forming

thicket A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in t ...

s. Its bark is gray and its twigs have white

pith Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, which in some cases can store starch. In eudicotyledons, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocotyledons, it ext ...

. The leaves are long and wide, and typically have 3 or 4 pairs of lateral veins, fewer than other dogwood species. The plant grows upright with a rounded habit, oppositely arranged leaves, and terminally born flowers. The white flowers are small, with four

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s long, and clustered together in rounded clusters wide called diachasial cymes, produced sometime between May and July. After flowering, green fruits (

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

s) are produced, and they ripen and turn white from August to October. The flowers and fruit are attached to the plant by bright red

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

s. Many species of birds feed on the fruits. Old branches grow slowly, while new stems are fast growing. In the fall the foliage can take on a reddish or purplish color, though it is not overly showy from a distance.

Classification

''Cornus racemosa'' has been variably treated as a subspecies of ''Cornus foemina'' Mill., with which it overlaps. It occasionally hybridizes with ''

Cornus amomum ''Cornus amomum'', the silky dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to the eastern United States, from Michigan and Vermont south to Alabama and Florida. Other names include red willow, silky cornel, kinnikinnick, and squawbush. Description ' ...

'' (silky dogwood), the products of which are named ''Cornus'' × ''arnoldiana''.

References

External links

''Cornus racemosa'' description with pictures
*
Brief description and pictures
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1134291 racemosa Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the United States Trees of the Southeastern United States Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck