VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Cornus florida | Flowering Dogwood 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
The brownish wood of flowering dogwood is hard, strong, heavy, fine
grained, and shock resistant [9,22,61,87].  It was formerly used for
shuttles in the textile industry, and has also been used for tool
handles, charcoal, wheel cogs, mauls, hay forks, and pulleys [61].  The
wood is occasionally used to make specialty items such as golf club
heads, turnery, roller-skate wheels, jeweler's blocks, knitting needles,
and woodcut blocks [9,61,87].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Fruit:  Flowering dogwood is a valuable species for wildlife.  Its fruit
is readily eaten by many songbirds including the hermit, olive-back, and
gray-cheeked thrushes, veery, northern cardinal, white-throated sparrow,
tufted titmouse, towhees, grosbeaks, thrashers, bluebirds, and juncos
[4,24,38,63,97].  The fruit is particularly important to the American
robin.  Flocks often move from the forest edge to the interior as
berries are depleted [4].  The pileated woodpecker, red-headed
woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, common crow, common grackle, and
starling also seek out flowering dogwood fruit [24].  Value of fruit to
upland game birds is rated as good [13].  In the Missouri Ozarks,
flowering dogwood fruit is particularly important to the wild turkey
from September to February [31].  Berries are readily eaten by the
eastern chipmunk, white-footed mouse, gray fox, gray squirrel, black
bear, beaver, white-tailed deer, skunks, and other mammals [31,65,91].

Browse:  Beaver occasionally feed on flowering dogwood browse [31] and
sprouts are often heavily browsed by rabbits [65].  In southwestern
Michigan, browse is preferred by cottontail rabbits during the winter
[31] and in parts of Pennsylvania, flowering dogwood is considered an
important deer browse [12].  Deer utilization has reached 25 to 35
percent in parts of southeastern Texas [55].


PALATABILITY : 
Flowering dogwood is fairly palatable to deer in southeastern Texas
[54].  Palatability may be somewhat higher in parts of Pennsylvania
[12].  The fruit of flowering dogwood is highly palatable to a wide
variety of birds and mammals.


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
The nutrient value of flowering dogwood varies significantly by plant
part, site history [see Fire Management Considerations], phenology, and
soil moisture levels [19,54].

Browse:  Leaves of flowering dogwood are high in calcium, fat, and
fluorine [31,65].  Leaves were found to contain 1.72 percent calcium,
and twigs 1.44 percent [31].  Fluorine content of leaves was 72 p/m in
June but increased to 103 p/m by October [65].  Selected nutrient values
for flowering dogwood browse on unburned sites were reported as follows
[54]:

                  (percent measured at 15 percent moisture level) 
dates       protein     fat    fiber    N-free extract   ash    Ca 

spring      10.26       3.82   13.54    51.22            6.16   2.04
summer       6.49       5.61   13.61    51.57            7.72   2.76
fall         5.12       6.84   15.82    48.41            8.13   2.90
winter       4.49       4.30   21.85    48.23            6.13   2.01 

Nutrient content of foliage has been measured as follows [65]:

K        P      Ca       Mg     S         B     Cu     Fe     Mn     Zn
oven-dry (mg/kg of foliage) - ppm               (mg/kg)

4,000   1,800  27,000   3,000   3,800     23   7-      240-   30-    3-
11,000  3,200  42,000   5,000   7,000          9       380    50     28

Fruit:  Fruit of flowering dogwood is high in calcium and fats [65].


COVER VALUE : 
Flowering dogwood provides good cover for many wildlife species [31].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Flowering has been planted on strip-mined lands in Indiana [10] and
grows as volunteers on surface-mined lands in Missouri, Kansas, and
Oklahoma [92].

Flowering dogwood can be propagated by seed, root cuttings, layering,
and grafting [9,31].  Seed may be planted immediately or stratified for
spring plantings [9].  Cleaned seed averages approximately 4,500 per
pound (9,920/kg) [65].  Summer softwood cuttings, winter hardwood
cuttings, grafts, suckers, and budding can be used to propagate
flowering dogwood [65].  Flowering dogwood can be difficult to
transplant [91].  Seedlings with a root ball are preferred over bareroot
transplants; plants at the beginning of the third growing season are
generally best suited for transplanting [65].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Flowering dogwood is highly valued as an ornamental and was first
cultivated in 1731 [9].  Showy blossoms and attractive fall foliage
contribute to its year-round beauty.  It is widely used in landscaping
and street plantings [87].  At least 20 cultivars are now available
[65].  Popular cultivars include 'Sweetwater Red,' 'Silveredge,' 'White
Cloud,' 'Spring Song,' 'Gigantea' [61], and 'Welchii' which is
characterized by unique yellow and red variegated leaves [65].

Some Native American peoples made a scarlet dye from the roots of
flowering dogwood [61].  Teas and quinine substitutes were made from the
bark [61].  Plants contain cornine which is used medicinally in parts of
Mexico [27].  The bright red fruits are poisonous to humans [65].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Chemical control:  Flowering dogwood is moderately difficult to kill
with herbicides [51,66,68,83].  It is intermediately resistant to
glyphosate [95].  Winter treatments are generally less effective than
summer treatments [51].  Good results have been obtained with directed
sprays of Garlon.

Mechanical treatment:  Flowering dogwood typically sprouts vigorously
after stems are cut [11].  Plants cut in July or early August tend to
produce the shortest sprouts and smallest sprout clumps.  Three years
after treatment, sprout clumps originating from midsummer cuts averaged
2.5 feet (0.8 m) shorter and 1.5 feet (0.5 m) narrower than those from
winter cuts [11].

Silviculture:  Flowering dogwood is typically more abundant in lightly
cut stands than in clearcuts [16].  Loftis [58] reported increases in
numbers following shelterwood treatments.  In upland oak forests,
greatest abundance is often reached in unthinned stands [42].

Damage:  Flowering dogwood can be killed by drought or flooding [31].
It is potentially sensitive to ozone damage [78].

Insects/diseases:  Flowering dogwood is susceptible to many insects,
including the dogwood borer, flat-headed borer, dogwood twig borer, twig
girdler, and dogwood scale [65].  Flowering dogwood is now seriously
threatened by dogwood blight, also known as dogwood decline [104,94],
which has affected large numbers of trees from New England to Virginia
[85,94].  The primary cause is believed to be the dogwood anthracnose
fungus, although a combination of factors may be involved [104,85].
Unfavorable environmental factors such as drought or acid rain may
weaken trees, predisposing them to dogwood decline [104].  The dogwood
borer may play a similar role [94].  Some experts see little hope of
saving flowering dogwood in the wild [85].

Related categories for Species: Cornus florida | Flowering Dogwood