Andy Gore, age 8,. of Fountain Valley, California, for his question:
What exactly is dogwood?
Dog food, as you know, is not commonly considered fit for humans to eat. This is what people had in mind when they named the dogwood tree. Its pretty berries are not tasty to humans. This does not mean that dogs eat them. In fact, dogs do not care about the berries of the dogwood tree, either. Ages ago, people in Europe gave the dogwood name to several different trees. When the settlers came to North America, they gave the same name to some trees they found growing here.
In North America, almost everybody knows what the dogwood looks like. It grows wild in most states and provinces. When spring comes, it opens its papery white blossoms for all the world to admire. But in parts of southern California, the dogwood is very rare. There are a few trees in people's gardens, but most young nature lovers do not know that they are dogwoods.
Dogwood is the state flower of Virginia, as well as the state flower of North Carolina and the official flower of the Canadian Province of British Columbia. Atlanta, Georgia, is called the Dogwood City. So the dogwood must be very popular indeed. And no wonder. Its lovely white flowers are beautiful to behold. And they appear just when everybody is yearning to see flowers. While the winter snows melt and turn to mush, the dogwood buds are getting ready. In March, April and May the blossoms and maybe a few green leaves burst open and what a sight it is.
Wild dogwood blossoms are white with greenish centers, like clumps of tiny beads. Each blossom has four white hearts arranged in a flattish square. The trees are rather short and twiggy, and the lovely blossoms perch cheek to cheek on all the twigs. This flowery finery adorns the hedges and roadsides and spreads its lacy boughs among the woodland trees. Naturally people plant these lovely springtime trees in their parks and gardens, along city streets and favorite walks. Some of the garden type dogwoods have shell pink or ruby red blossoms.
Not all wild dogwoods are alike. Actually there are about 40 different kinds. Sometimes six or more of them grow in the same region. At least two wild dogwoods grow in California, though many Californians never see them in bloom. One is the Pacific dogwood that puts on such a lavish show in British Columbia. Its blossoms have six white tapering ovals, instead of the usual four white hearts. This rather tallish dogwood tree grows way up on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada where few people see it. The lovely red osier dogwood also grows in California and in almost any other place where there is moist, marshy ground. This most lovely dogwood is a tallish shrub. Its twigs wear bright red stockings and brighten up the scenery even in winter time.
Most people think that the papery white dogwood blossom is a flower. But ex¬perts tell us that the real flower is the greenish cluster of little beads in the center. The four white hearts are really leaf bracts around the real flowers. Later, the white bracts fall off and the flowers in the center form berries. In the fall, the different dogwoods display their clusters of small white or blue or red berries. But dogwood berries are not fit for humans to eat or for dogs either.