Cornus florida flowering dogwood

A delicate-looking small tree when grown here, with prolific flowering in spring, hence florida – though it is native to that state as well. The tips of the four petal-like bracts initially adhere to one another as the inflorescence develops, creating a charming lantern-like effect. As the bracts spread wide, they usually separate at the tips, leaving the characteristic undulating notches that mark where they were once joined. In the eastern Mexican subspecies C. florida subsp. urbiniana (also treated as C. urbiniana), the tips commonly remain fused.

Our most substantial example stands at the southeast corner of the Kingscote Gardens building, with white bracts and orangy-peach autumn color. Others grow behind the Humanities Center and south of Tresidder Union. Distinguish C. florida from its popular hybrid with C. nuttallii, ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’, by the lantern-like opening of the bracts and the characteristic notches at their tips. The hybrid may also bear more than four bracts.