Alternate-leaved Dogwood

It’s great to see landscaping with native plants becoming mainstream. Many nurseries now carry at least some native species and seed mixes, while PEI’s Rural Beautification Society has added a Native Planting & Biodiversity category to its popular annual competition. The Island has many common, native plants that make beautiful additions to backyard gardens. One example: Alternate-leaved Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia).

PEI has four native Dogwoods, which are all easy to spot by their leaves. The vein that runs from the base of a leaf to its tip is called the midrib. Dogwood leaves have veins that start at the midrib and arch outwards to the edge of the leaf, curving toward the tip; you can see this in the photo. If you encounter a plant you don’t know that has this venation, start with the Dogwoods.

In addition to lush foliage, Alternate-leaved Dogwood produces prolific white flowers in June (main photo). Pollinated flowers turn to berries in July and August, starting out green before maturing to a deep purple, and they are borne on bright red stems (inset photo). Those berries aren’t poisonous, but they are very bitter and so not considered edible, although the birds enjoy them. In fall, this shrub’s leaves turn beautiful shades of red and purple.

Alternate-leaved Dogwood can grow to be 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 metres) tall, and has a distinctive, flat-topped, tiered shape. Its multiple, horizontal layers have earned it the additional name Pagoda Dogwood, for its semblance to the distinctive towers found in Asian architecture.

The Dogwood name likely comes from the exceptionally dense, hard wood found within this genus (comparable to Ironwood, Ostrya virginiana). Some Dogwoods were traditionally used to make arrows, skewers, or daggers. The shrubs were known as ‘dagge’ in Old English, and it’s not a big leap from ‘dagge wood’ to Dogwood. (The genus name, Cornus, comes from the Latin for ‘horn’ and is also a reference to the hard wood).

Alternate-leaved Dogwood is common across the Island, though I usually find it on partly shaded, well-drained sites. It’s beautiful year-round, good for pollinators, provides food and cover for birds, and can be a low-maintenance, native addition to gardens – all traits that make it a lovely member of PEI Untamed!