Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Cornus florida


We have two white dogwoods in the front, two more in back, and I think another somewhere along the edges somewhere.... I should know that, shouldn't I? It was a cold gray day here - not one that encouraged me to spend lots of time in the yard gazing on trees.

There are many sub-genuses (geni?) of dogwood and I won't know for sure which we have until they produce berries. Dogwoods usually have white flowers, but also occasionally pink, as can be found in my neighbor's yard.


Dogwood trivia: Those beautiful white (or pink) "flowers" are actually not flowers at all, but bracts. Bracts are specialized leaves associated with a plant's reproductive structure. The dogwood's flowers are tiny yellowish green guys - you can see them still tightly closed in the top picture.


3 comments:

Sensory Overload said...

Hi. :)

I quite enjoy the many varieties of dogwood. It's nice to see the many different colors produced as the budding to bloom occurs. Thanks for sharing.

I fancy Golden Glory Corneliancherry Dogwood. If you'd like to see some up close, stop by : http://rearranging-the-senses.blogspot.com/2010/04/because-sometimes-gray-just-needs.html

I'll be curious to find out what genus the variety you have shared are.

Maggie said...

Well hey there, Sensory Overload ;) You are a gem and that new blog is a thing of beauty.

I feared I'd lost track of you in my recent email meltdown and subsequent switch to gmail. But no! Hooray for that. Shoot me your email (again, I know, I'm awful), will you?

Big hugs dear!

ehirunner said...

the championista wrote:

There are many sub-genuses (geni?) of dogwood

I myself am something of a subgenius, however, as I am quite singular, I do not know the plural of myself. My, how structurally phenomenological.