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Flowering Dogwood Scientific Name: Cornus florida Common Name: Flowering Dogwood Division: Magnoliophyta Family: Cornaceae Genus: Cornus GENERAL DESCRIPTION One of the most spectacular small ornamental flowering trees, the graceful, compact Flowering Dogwood is strikingly beautiful in the spring. It is an interesting tree year-round with its showy spring flowers, red fruit in September and October, and red to reddish-purple fall foliage. Flowering Dogwood at northeast corner of North Meadow, along East Drive

Flower   Individually small and inconspicuous — 4 greenish-yellow petals in a tight cluster.  They are surrounded by 4 very showy large white (occasionally pink) bracts 3 to 4 inches in diameter.  Flowers open April through May, usually before the tree leafs out. Fruit Shiny red oval fruit, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, ripening late September to October.  Provides food for wildlife. Leaf   Oval, 3 to 5 inches long with smooth edges.  Bright green on top, paler underneath.  The fall colors are stunning.  Bark   Smooth gray, developing distinctive scales with age.   Form:  Small, graceful tree with short trunk and spreading, nearly horizontal branches. LOCATIONS IN CENTRAL PARK  Southwest shore of Pond at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue  East 85th Street at Rhododendron Mile  East 102nd Street  The Dene, east side from 66th to 72nd Street  Shakespeare Garden, west wide between 79th and 80th Streets Photo Credit: Steve Baskauf, bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/ Matthew Brown, Central Park Conservancy Neil Calvanese, Central Park Conservancy