The Main Plant entry for Dogwoods (Cornus)

Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

"Dogwoods have simple, untoothed leaves with the veins curving distinctively as they approach the leaf margins. Most dogwood species have opposite leaves, while a few, such as Cornus alternifolia and C. controversa, have their leaves alternate. Dogwood flowers have four parts. In many species, the flowers are borne separately in open (but often dense) clusters, while in various other species (such as the flowering dogwood), the flowers themselves are tightly clustered, lacking showy petals, but surrounded by four to six large, typically white petal-like bracts.

Various species of Cornus, particularly the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), are ubiquitous in American gardens and landscaping; horticulturist Donald Wyman stated "There is a dogwood for almost every part of the U.S. except the hottest and dryest areas."

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There are about 45 species of Dogwoods in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere of trees, shrubs, and two herbaceous perennials. Most are deciduous but some are evergreen, all with simple, smooth-edged leaves with prominent, inward-curving veins. Leaves are opposite with a few exceptions being alternate. The flowers are small greenish-yellow to yellow to creamy to white, a few dull purplish, in sort of flat clusters, but of course, some species have the four large white or pink or yellow bracts around the true flowers that make up the beautiful, conspicuous flower. The fruits are drupes, a cherry kind of fruit, that are white, bluish, black, purple, or red. All the species I know of are basically neat, clean-growing plants of average to high quality. The American Flowering Dogwood is the best known and most ornamentally glorious species.

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