Common Name: DOGWOOD FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb to tree; sometimes dioecious. Leaf: generally opposite, simple, generally entire, generally deciduous, veins often arched; stipules 0. Inflorescence: cyme or raceme, generally umbel- or head-like, subtended by showy or +- non-showy bracts or open, not subtended by bracts. Flower: generally small, generally bisexual; calyx generally 4-lobed; petals [0]4[(5)], free; stamens generally as many as, alternate petals; ovary inferior, chambers 1--4, 1-ovuled, style simple, stigma lobes 0[2--4]. Fruit: drupe [berry]. Seed: generally 1--2.
Genera In Family: +- 12 genera, +- 100 species: especially northern temperate (also southern tropics, subtrop); cultivated as ornamental (Cornus, Aucuba); some timber species.
eFlora Treatment Author: James R. Shevock
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: DOGWOOD
Leaf: generally opposite or whorled; base, tip generally tapered. Inflorescence: head-like cyme subtended by showy bracts, open cyme not subtended by bracts, or umbel subtended by non-showy bracts. Fruit: stone 1--2-chambered.
Etymology: (Latin: horn, from the hard wood) Note: Divided by some into 6 or more genera.
Reference: Murrell 1993 Syst Bot 18:469--495; Wahlsteen et al. 2021 J Syst Evol 59: 405--416

Common Name: AMERICAN DOGWOOD
Habit: Shrub generally 1.5--4 m. Stem: branches +- red to purple, +- glabrous to minute-strigose, in age gray-green, generally glabrous. Leaf: blade generally 5--10 cm, lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, paler abaxially, veins 4--7 pairs. Inflorescence: cyme, strigose; bracts 0. Flower: petals 2--4.5 mm; style 1--3 mm. Fruit: 7--9 mm, white to cream; stone smooth or 3-ridged on faces, furrowed on sides.
Note: Highly variable complex with many local forms, treated broadly here. Subspecies intergrade widely.