BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Cornus alternifolia | Alternate-Leaf Dogwood 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Alternate-leaf dogwood is a large shrub or small tree that may reach 25
to 30 feet (7.5-9 m) in height [5,14,25].  The trunk forks near the
ground into several branches that spread horizontally in layers.  The
bark is thin.  The alternate leaves occur mainly at the end of the
twigs.  The fruit is a drupe [10,17,21,31].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
The dogwood species reproduce by layering, sprouting from the root
crown, and by seed [21,30].  The seed is dispersed by gravity and
animals.  Germination is delayed due to embryo dormancy [21].

Alternate-leaf dogwood is vegetatively propagated [21].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Alternate-leaf dogwood grows best on well-drained deep soils. It is
found in moist woodlands, along forest margins, on stream and swamp
borders, and near deep canyon bottoms [1,16,21].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Alternate-leaf dogwood is shade-tolerant [9,20].  It is a dominant
understory species in mature forest in New England, and a
late-successsional understory shrub in the aspen (Populus spp.) and
sugar maple forests of Michigan [21,26].  

Alternate-leaf dogwood also occurs in younger tree stands.  It was a
dominant shrub species in a 49-year-old aspen stand and an 18-year-old
aspen stand in northern Minnesota [32].  Alternate-leaf dogwood had a
density of 54 stems per hectare in a 20- to 30-year-old burn in North
Carolina [36].  Alternate-leaf dogwood occurs in both young (age <41
years) and old (age >40 years) oak (Quercus spp.) clearcuts in
southwestern Wisconsin [33].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Alternate-leaf dogwood flowers from May to July.  The fruit ripens from
July through September [4,20].

Related categories for Species: Cornus alternifolia | Alternate-Leaf Dogwood