Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

PALE DOGWOOD

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Cornus amomum Mill.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Height: Shrubs, to 16 feet

Family: Cornaceae - Dogwood Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

Swamp dogwood.

Trunks:

Stems ascending to erect; bark greenish tan to reddish brown, initially smooth, eventually shallowly fissured; wood white, hard.

Twigs:

Green to red, becoming grayish red to grayish brown, flexible, smooth to slightly furrowed, hairy or glabrate; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds grayish brown, ovoid, .1 to .2 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales hairy.

Leaves:

Deciduous, opposite, simple; petiole .2 to 1.2 inch, pubescent; blade 2.4 to 3.6 inches long, .8 to 1.4 inches wide, lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, base wedge-shaped, margins entire, apex acuminate, lower surface pale green, pubescent, upper surface dark yellowish green to dark green, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, lateral veins of 3-5 pairs, more or less evenly distributed along midrib.

Flowers:

Inflorescences terminal on new growth, cymes, convex to flat-topped, 50-100-flowered, 1 to 3.2 inches wide; subtending bracts numerous, minute, not petal-like; peduncles .8 to 2.4 inches; pedicels .2 to .28 inch, pubescent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; hypanthium ovoid; sepals 4, connate proximally, calyx lobes greenish yellow, lanceolate to ovate, .04 to .09 inch; petals 4, inserted on nectar disk margin, lobes cream-colored, narrowly ovate to oblong, .12 to .19 inch, stamens 4, .16 to .28 inch; style 1, .08 to .16 inch.

Fruit:

August-September; drupes, dark blue, spherical, .28 to .43 inch diam., sparsely pubescent; stone 1, greenish white to light brown, nearly spherical to egg-shaped, .24 to .28 inch long, .2 inch wide, with 6-9 irregular longitudinal grooves.

Habitat:

Floodplain woods, mesic upland woodlands, stream banks, marshes, prairie swales.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Pale dogwood leaf