March 2021 Featured Plant: Pagoda Dogwood

2021 March Featured Plant

Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) STATEWIDE Family: Dogwood WETLAND (Cornaceae) INDICATOR STATUS: FACU, DESCRIPTION: An attractive FAC flowering shrub or small understory tree common in ID: Pagoda hardwood and mixed forests, dogwood pagoda dogwood grows 12 to is the only 25 feet tall and up to 25 feet Cornus species wide. Its name comes from the in Minnesota tiered, horizontal branching with alternate leaves. They’re said to resemble a pagoda. oval, and up to 4 inches USES: Common as a multi- long. Young stemmed ornamental specimens’ landscaping shrub, pagoda green, smooth dogwood can be pruned to a bark turns a one-trunk tree. Its horizontal Photo Credit: David Hanson reddish-brown branches can provide an with age. architectural appearance and Planting Recommendations Creamy white, four-petaled focal point in gardens. Birds Most commonly sold in cuttings. Consider planting and pollinators feed on the fruit flowers grow and flowers; branches provide containers or as a bare-root wild geranium, Jacob’s ladder, in clusters. plant, pagoda dogwood wild ginger or Pennsylvania Dark blue shelter for nesting. drupes prefers medium-textured, sedge under these small trees. ripen in late REFERENCES: moist, acidic, loamy soil Rich soils and protection from summer. Minnesota Wildflowers Roots are Iowa State University Natural and shade, but will tolerate weather extremes boost Resource Stewardship fibrous and University of Kentucky full sun. It has low drought pagoda dogwood's resistance spreading. USDA NRCS Plants Database tolerance but does well in cold to golden canker, a common University of Minnesota Extension SIMILAR climates. Consider planting disease of the species caused SPECIES: Gray, on the north or east side of by a fungus that can kill part red-osier, silky and a building for part-shade. of the plant. Pruning and then red-osier and Pagoda dogwood can self- burying or burning infected, round-leaved seed. Like other dogwoods, it discolored branches curbs the dogwoods have opposite can be propagated from stem canker’s spread. leaves while pagoda dogwood Developed by Calista Hughes has alternate Hughes is studying ecology, evolution, and behavior and leaves. The plant biology at the University of Minnesota. She worked on branches of Range Map Credit: NRCS Plants this article during an Increasing Diversity in Environmental round-leaved dogwood are Database Careers (IDEC) internship. more upright.