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Home  /  Plants  /  Budburst Species  /  Cornus nuttallii
Phenology Observation Sheet for Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

COMMON NAME

Pacific dogwood

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Cornus nuttallii

ALSO KNOWN AS

Western dogwood

Plant family

Dogwood (Cornaceae)

Plant group

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

Pacific dogwood is a Western tree with 4 large white rounded bracts that look like the petals of a flower. The leaves are arranged oppositely and have prominent veins that curve parallel to the margins of the leaves.
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OBSERVERS
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OBSERVATIONS
!

Identification hints

Pacific dogwood is a Western tree with 4 large white rounded bracts that look like the petals of a flower. The leaves are arranged oppositely and have prominent veins that curve parallel to the margins of the leaves.
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Did you know?

Pacific dogwood bark was used by Nlaka 'pamux, indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast, to make brown dye. Bark has also been used as a blood purifier, lung strengthener, stomach treatment and possibly to cure malaria.
DISTRIBUTION IN TH U.S.
California , Idaho , Oregon , Washington
HABITAT
Mountain woods and stream banks between 3000 and 6000 ft (900 to 1800 m).
ATTRIBUTES
Leaves
The leaves are oppositely arranged, simple, oval shaped, 3 to 5 in (7.5 to 12.5 cm) long and 2 to 3 in (5 to 7.5 cm) broad.
Flowers
Large, showy, creamy white blossoms sometimes flushed with pink. The individual flowers are small and inconspicuous. They are 0.08 to 0.12 in (0.2 to 0.3 cm) across and produced in a dense, rounded, greenish-white flower head with a diameter of 0.8 in (2 cm). The 4 to 8 large white “petals” are actually bracts (modified leaves), each 1.5 to 3 in (3.75 to 7.5 cm) long and broad. Flowers bloom from mid-spring to summer.
Fruits
Pacific dogwood has fruits that are small red to pink clusters of berries
Bark
 Young bark is thin and smooth. Ridges develop later making the trunk appear scale-like.

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