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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
ABBREVIATION :
CORNUT
SYNONYMS :
Cynoxylon nuttallii Shafer
Benthamidii nuttallii (Audobon) Moldenke
SCS PLANT CODE :
CONU4
COMMON NAMES :
Pacific dogwood
mountain dogwood
western dogwood
western flowering dogwood
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name of Pacific dogwood is Cornus
nuttallii Audubon. It is a member of the dogwood famliy (Cornaceae)
[2,9].
LIFE FORM :
Tree, Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
See OTHER STATUS
OTHER STATUS :
The species is globally ranked as secure but is rare in parts of its
range. A disjunct population of Pacific dogwood in central Idaho (Idaho
County) along the Lochsa and Selway rivers on the Clearwater Forest and
perhaps on the Nez Perce National Forest is considered a "Sensitive"
species by Region 1 of the Forest Service. Idaho ranks Pacific dogwood
as endangered due to vulnerability of extirpation from its limited
population size and recent diebacks [37].
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
Randy Scott Griffith, June 1992.
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Griffith, Randy Scott. 1992. Cornus nuttallii. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Pacific dogwood inhabits an area from the Pacific coast inland
approximately 200 miles (333 km) with a northern boundary above Vancover
Island, British Columbia and a southern boundary in southern California
in San Diego County [9,23,29]. A disjunct population occurs in
north-central Idaho, Idaho County [1,9,29].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES22 Western white pine
FRES23 Fir - spruce
FRES24 Hemlock - Sitka spruce
FRES27 Redwood
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES34 Chaparral - mountain shrub
STATES :
CA ID OR WA BC
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
CRLA KICA LAVO MORA MUWO NOCA
OLYM REDW SEQU WHIS YOSE
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K001 Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
K002 Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
K003 Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
K005 Mixed conifer forest
K006 Redwood forest
K007 Red fir forest
K010 Ponderosa shrub forest
K012 Douglas-fir forest
K013 Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
K014 Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
K025 Alder - ash forest
K026 Oregon oakwoods
K029 California mixed evergreen forest
K030 California oakwoods
K034 Montane chaparral
SAF COVER TYPES :
205 Mountain hemlock
206 Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
207 Red fir
210 Interior Douglas-fir
211 White fir
212 Western larch
213 Grand fir
217 Aspen
221 Red alder
222 Black cottonwood - willow
223 Sitka spruce
224 Western hemlock
225 Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
226 Coastal true fir - hemlock
227 Western redcedar - western hemlock
228 Western redcedar
229 Pacific Douglas-fir
230 Douglas-fir - western hemlock
231 Port-Orford-cedar
232 Redwood
233 Oregon white oak
234 Douglas-fir - tanoak - Pacific madrone
243 Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
244 Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir
245 Pacific ponderosa pine
246 California black oak
247 Jeffrey pine
248 Knobcone pine
249 Canyon live oak
250 Blue oak - Digger pine
255 California coast live oak
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Pacific dogwood is listed as an indicator and dominant understory
species in the following:
Plant association and management guide for the grand fir zone, Gifford
Pinchot Natonal Forest [34].
Plant association and management guide for the western hemlock zone,
Gifford Pinchot National Forest [35].
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
The white wood of Pacific dogwood is heavy, hard, and fine grained [10].
There is small demand for the wood in the manufacture of golf club
heads, piano keys, and for shuttles in textile mills [1,10].
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Pacific dogwood provides poor to good forage for livestock and wildlife
[18,29]. The cover value varies from poor to good depending on the
successional status of Pacific dogwood [27].
PALATABILITY :
Pacific dogwood has high concentrations of tannins in the bark, which
make the browse bitter. This accounts for its low palatability to
livestock and wild ungulates; the young sprouts, however, are cropped
with relish [27,29]. The fruit is of fair importance to some game
birds, nongame birds, and some small mammals [18,21]. The fruit of
Pacific dogwood composes up to 10 percent of the diet of the band-tailed
pigeon [1,18] and less than 2 percent of the mountain beaver's diet
[18].
The relish and degree of use by livestock and wildlife for Pacific
dogwood in several western states is rated as follows [8,17,29,36]:
ID CA OR WA
Cattle poor poor poor poor
Sheep fair fair fair fair
Goats fair fair fair fair
Horses poor poor poor poor
Wapiti fair fair fair fair
Black-tailed deer poor poor poor poor
White-tailed deer poor poor poor poor
Mule deer fair fair fair fair
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
As Pacific dogwood matures it provides varing degrees of hiding cover
for ungulates. During the first few years after disturbance by logging
or fire, saplings and older specimens provide good cover. As the stems
from a resprouting root crown thin out or a specimen's crown grows into
the canopy, the cover value lessens [27].
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
Due to its high flood resistance [14], Pacific dogwood has been found to
be effective in streambank stabilization in areas were the soils are
deep and well drained [26].
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
Native Americans used the wood of Pacific dogwood to make salmon
harpoons [5] and made a tea from the bark that was used as a diarrhetic
[1,5].
Early settlers used the wood for mauls and mallet heads [10], and
produced a quininelike substance from the tannin-rich bark that was used
to fight fever [1,29].
Pacific dogwood is cultivated as an ornamental [10,26].
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Pacific dogwood seedlings and saplings are shade tolerant. When
establishing new trees, they should be planted in a ring of native
shrubs such as snowberry (Symphoricarpos spp.) and ninebark (Physocarpus
spp.) to avoid sunburn of the lower trunk and branches, while allowing
the upper branches to receive sun [26]. The lower boles of
shade-intolerant mature trees are susceptible to frost injury [14] and
to disturbance of the soil resulting in soil accumulation and compaction
around the first 2 inches (5 cm) of the bole [26].
Pacific dogwood is curently being used as an indicator species for warm
sites. It is useful in the estimation of summer (August to September)
soil temperatures for it is indicative of soils that have a mean summer
temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees C) [7,22].
The water soluble leachates from senescent leaves of Pacific dogwood
have the potential to slow the regeneration of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
menziesii) [33].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Pacific dogwood is a native, deciduous, long-lived shrub or tree. The
opposite leaves have a wavy margin and are tapered at both ends
[1,9,10]. The twigs are green at first, but at maturity turn deep red
to almost black [23]. The flowers are small, green, and borne in
clusters at the end of branchlets surrounded by four to six (usually
six) floral bracts [1,10].
Pacific dogwood can obtain heights as great as 60 feet (18 m) with a
d.b.h. of 24 inches (60 cm) on optimum sites, but the norm is 20 to 30
feet (6-9 m) with a d.b.h. of 6 to 12 inches (15-30 cm) [10]. Under a
forest canopy, Pacific dogwood develops a long, tapered bole with a
short narrow crown; in the open, it has a short, branched bole and
rounded crown. The root system is generally deep with a large taproot
[10].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Pacific dogwood reproduces both sexually and asexually. It reaches
sexual maturity at 6 to 10 years of age [26]. Large seed crops are
generally produced at 2-year intervals [2]. The fruit is a drupe that
is bright red when ripe [2]. Fresh seed germinates in the fall in many
types of substrate conditions [26]; however, dried seed needs to be
scarified in concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) for 4 hours, rinsed, and
then stratified at 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees C) for 3 months
[2,26]. The mean lab germination rate for Pacific dogwood is 81 percent
at 100 percent purity. The average number of cleaned seeds per pound is
4,700 [2].
Pacific dogwood reprouts from the root crown after distubance by fire or
logging [11,12]. Treated cuttings taken in June and July root fairly
well [14]. Cuttings should be cultivated in clay pots due to water
retention and possible root rot from cans [26]. Cuttings should not be
retained for more then 2 years, for transplants after this time frame
have a higher mortality rate [14].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Pacific dogwood occurs in maritime to submaritime cool mesothermal
climates; it is reduced or lacking in subalpine environments [13]. It
grows best on deep, relatively stone-free, well-drained soils with a
rich humus layer [26,33,34].
Soil: Pacific dogwood has a strong affinity for soils high in nitrogen
with the moder or mull humus forms in the soil orders of the
Inceptisols, Ultisols, and Alfisols [13,19,20].
Elevation: Pacific dogwood grows from near sea level to 6,000 feet
(1,820 m) [23] with elevational limits of 3,500 feet (910 m) in British
Columbia [14] and Washington [32] and reaching its elevational maximum
of 6,000 feet (1,820 m) in California [28].
Associates: Pacific dogwood's primary associates include Douglas-fir,
western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa),
grand fir (Abies grandis), giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum),
redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and giant chinkapin (Castanopsis
chrysophylla) [19,20,28].
Pacific dogwood's understory associates include snowberry, Pacific
bayberry (Myrica californica), Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron
macrophyllum), ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), and Pacific yew (Taxus
brevifolia) [19,26,30].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Some authors consider Pacific dogwood a climax species on mesic sites
[34,35], while others view it as a seral species in mesothermal forests
[1,13]. Pacific dogwood exhibits characteristics of a climax species:
it is shade tolerant for its first few years, but once it has a
well-developed canopy it becomes shade intolerant [26].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Pacific dogwood flowers from April to May. It may flower again in
September, but these flowers never mature [1,10]. Seed maturity and
dispersal occur from September to October [2].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
After fire Pacific dogwood resprouts vigorously from the root crown
[11,12,26,27]. These sprouts are not shade tolerant (as are saplings
from seed); thus they flourish after a fire [26].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
survivor species; on site surviving root crown or caudex
off-site colonizer; seed carried by animals or water; postfire yr 1&2
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Due to the thin bark of Pacific dogwood the immediate effect of a cool
to moderate burn is damage to the cambian layer resulting in top-kill of
the tree [6,12].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Pacific dogwood sprouts vigorously from dormant buds on the root crown
after cool to moderate burns [12]. The number of suckers per stump is
directly proportional to stump size [32]. Roy [27] investigated
hardwood sprouting in California after clearcutting and broadcast
burning. The mean height, crown diameter, and sprouts per plant in
postfire years 2 and 3 were as follows:
Post fire Height Crown Diameter Sprouts
Year 2 4.2 feet 4.5 feet 19
(1.3 m) (1.36 m)
Year 3 5.9 feet 5.4 14
(1.7 m) (1.6 m)
Schoonmaker and McKee [31] studied long-term secondary succession in the
coniferious forests of the Cascades. They found that percent cover of
Pacific Dogwood after 40 years exceeds that of old growth.
Pacific dogwood will invade clearcuts and burns from adjacent forests
from dissemination of seeds by birds and small mammals [39].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
If one of the management goals of a prescribed fire is preservation of
Pacific dogwood for aesthetic value (as in the giant sequoia groves), a
fire line should be prepared around Pacific dogwood [6]. When Pacific
dogwood is overtopped by conifers and becomes decadent, as in the case
of the disjunct population in Idaho, a prescribed fire is recommended
for rejuvenation [24].
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Cornus nuttallii | Pacific Dogwood
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Index
Related categories for Species: Cornus nuttallii
| Pacific Dogwood
|
 |
