Scientific name: Cornus amomum
Family: Cornaceae (Dogwood family)
The silky dogwood represents a group of shrub dogwoods native to Ohio (including alternate-leaf dogwood, roughleaf dogwood, gray dogwood, and bloodtwig dogwood) that have a strongly multistemmed growth habit and are always found in nature as a shrub rather than a tree. As a member of the dogwood family, it is related to the many other species of dogwoods, and distantly related to black tupelo. Silky dogwood prefers moist to wet sites in soils of various compositions and pH. It adapts to dry soils, poor soils, or soils that are wet in winter and spring, and dry in summer and autumn. It is found in zones 4 to 8, in full sun to partial shade. Silky dogwood can be infected or infested by a number of diseases and pests that frequent both the shrub and tree dogwoods; however, this species is generally free of problems. In an urban situation, silky dogwood with time may become wider for its intended space than was originally intended.
Identification
LEAF: Opposite, ovate to elliptical, and have prominent veins that run parallel to the smooth, non-wavy leaf margins. Autumn coloration is often green to chartreuse but can be reddish-yellow, reddish-orange, or reddish-purple in good years.
TWIGS AND BUDS: Winter twigs are thin and often reddish-purple to bronze, and in the case of silky dogwood may or may not have stalked buds.
FRUIT OR SEED: The blue-black fruits mature in mid-summer and are quickly consumed by birds, squirrels, and other woodland mammals.
BARK: Branches have beige vertical streaks on a reddish-purple inner bark, which becomes a blocky, gray-brown bark at maturity, very similar to that of flowering dogwood.
SHAPE: Round shrub
MATURE HEIGHT: 10 feet.
Information credits: ODNR
Photo credits: ©Arthur Haines (Native Plant Trust), Alexey Zinovjev Copyright © 2024, ©SB_Johnny (CC-BY-SA 3.0), Carol Levine
Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum 