The genus Cornus contains about 40 species which grow in the northern temperate regions of the world. The name cornus is derived from the Latin name of the type species Cornus mas L., Cornelian-cherry of Europe, from the word for horn (cornu), referring to the hardness of the wood.

Cornus alternifolia        alternate leaf dogwood, blue dogwood, green-osier, pagoda, pagoda cornel, pagoda dogwood, pigeonberry, purple dogwood, um­brella-tree

Cornus drummondii roughleaf dogwood, rough-leaved dogwood

Cornus florida arrowwood, boxwood, bunchberry, cornel, dogwood (used bark to treat dog's mange), false boxwood, Florida dogwood, flowering dogwood, white cornel

Cornus glabrata brown dogwood, flowering dogwood, mountain dogwood, Pacific dogwood, smooth dogwood, western flowering dogwood Cornus nuttallii California dogwood, flowering dogwood, mountain dogwood, Pacific dogwood, western dogwood, western flowering dogwood

Corn us occidentalis western dogwood

Cornus racemosa blue-fruit dogwood, gray dogwood, stiffcornel, stiffcornel dogwood, stiff dogwood, swamp dogwood

Corn us rugosa roundleaf dogwood

Cornus sessilis blackfruit dogwood, miners dogwood

Corn us stolonifera American dogwood, California dogwood, creek dogwood, kinnikinnik, red dogwood, red-osier dogwood, red-panicled dogwood, red- stem dogwood, squawbush, western dogwood Corn us stricta bluefruit dogwood, stiffcornel, stiffcornel dogwood, swamp dogwood

The following description is for flowering dogwood.

Distribution: North America, from Maine to New York, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri south to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas east to Florida.

The Tree: Flowering dogwood is well known for its white flower clusters with large white bracts opening in the spring. The fall foliage is bright red. It is a slow-growing tree which attains a height of 40 ft (12 m) and a diameter of 16 inches (40 cm). The bark looks like reddish-brown alligator skin. The tree grows best along streams and in well-drained soils.

General Wood Characteristics: The sapwood of dogwood is wide and creamy in color, while the heartwood is reddish brown to brown, sometimes streaked in white. The wood has a fine, uniform texture with a hard, compact interlocked grain. Strength is similar to that of European Beech, but higher in hardness and shock resistance and slightly lower in stiffness.

 

Mechanical propertiesa

 

aReference (59).

Drying and shrinkagea,b

 

aDogwood will check unless dried slowly under controlled conditions. It shows large movement under changing moisture conditions.

bReferences: 0% MC, (59); 6% and 20% MC, (90).

 

Working Properties: Dogwood can be sawn, planed, and turned easily, and it takes a glossy finish.

Durability: Nonresistant to heartwood decay because of the small percentage of heartwood. Preservation: No information available at this time.

Uses: Weaving shuttles, spool and bobbin heads, small pulleys, skewers, golf club heads,
tool handles, charcoal for gunpowder, red dye from bark of roots, medicine from stem bark.

Toxicity: No information available at this time.

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