Cornus florida L.

Cornus florida L. Sp. PI. 117. 1753
Benlhamidia florida Spach, Hist. Veg. 8: 107. 1839.
Cynoxylon floridum Britt. & Shaf. N. Am. Trees 744. 1908.
Benthamia florida Nakai, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 23: 41. 1909. (Nomen nudum.)
vSmall trees, or sometimes shrubs; branchlets green or red, minutely strigillose, becoming grey, the pith brown; bark of the trunk grey, fissured in roughly rectangular blocks; leaf-blades commonly 5-8 cm. long, 2-4 cm. broad (sometimes up to 12 cm. long, 6.5 cm. broad), ovate to elliptic or obovate, abruptly acuminate, cuneate and often asymmetric at the base, strigillose on both surfaces and paler beneath and somewhat villose along the midrib and veins especially when young; veins 4-6 on either side of the midrib, usually 4 arising from its basal half; petioles commonly about 1 cm. long, occasionally to 2 cm. ; inflorescence appearing in autumn, the subtending cataphylls narrowly lanceolate, ferruginous ventrally with a hoary-strigillose tip, the lower pair deciduous with the foliage (except sometimes in western plants), the upper persisting through the winter; bracts of the involucre 4, at anthesis commonly 3-15 cm. long, 2.5-4.5 cm. broad, white, parallel-veined, obcordate, the retuse apex callose, minutely pubescent dorsally especially at base and apex; flowers yellowish, 20-30 in a cluster 1—1.5 cm. across, subtended by an inner ring of obtuse bracts (? prophylls) each about 1 mm. long and broad; hypanthium 2.5 mm. high, canescent; calyx 2 mm. high, campanulate, the sepals united about half their length; petals 3.5 mm. long, revolute; style 2-2.5 mm. long; drupe red (drying black), about 1.5 cm. long, 0.S cm. broad, ellipsoid, crowned by the persistent calyx and style, usually 1-6 in a cluster, the endocarp about 1.0 cm. long, 0.5 cm. broad, smooth, acute.
Type locality: "Virginia."
Distribution: Southern Maine and southern Ontario to eastern Kansas, south to Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas.