Cornus stricta Lam.

Swamp Dogwood; Stiff Dogwood; Stiff Cornel

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Swamp Dogwood is a native deciduous shrub or small tree in the Dogwood family (Cornaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Swamp Dogwood occurs on the banks of streams and rivers, around ponds and lakes, in floodplain forest, and around cypress ponds and depressions. It is usually a multi-trunked shrub up to 20 feet in height. Occasionally individuals will have a single trunk. The bark on younger plants is reddish brown and smooth, becoming gray and furrowed on older trunks. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, lanceolate to elliptic in outline, with entire margins. The upper surface of the leaf is dark green, glabrous, and smooth to the touch. The lower leaf surface is pale gray-green and glabrous or with sparse appressed hairs. Flowers are produced in terminal cymes. The individual flowers have 4 spreading cream-white petals. The fruit is a blue drupe. Swamp Dogwood is similar to Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum Miller) which occurs in similar habitats. That species has lower leaf surfaces that are greener in color and are pubescent. The pith of Swamp Dogwood is white and that of Silky Dogwood is tan in color. Eastern Roughleaf Dogwood (Cornus asperifolia Michaux) is a similar species restricted to extreme south Alabama. It has white pith but its leaves are pubescent on both surfaces with stiff hairs, making them rough to the touch. Swamp Dogwood leaves are a larval food for the Spring Azure butterfly (Celastrina ladon), and the fruit are consumed by a wide variety of birds and mammals. Swamp Dogwood is sometimes available from nurseries. It prefers a moist soil and full to partial sun.--A. Diamond

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Native FACW- (NWPL)

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