Cornus racemosa
[ Swida racemosa¹ ]

Gray Dogwood

[ click on any image below to see larger version ]

Family: Cornaceae (Dogwood family)

Mid-Atlantic bloom time: May
Mid-Atlantic fruit ripe: August - September

Gray Dogwood is a shrubby plant, 1–5m tall. Its mature white drupes are attached by bright red pedicels.

14 September 2019 Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA	14 September 2019 Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA	14 September 2019 Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA	14 September 2019 Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA
14 September 2019 Riverbend Park, Great Falls, VA

References

1:   The Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora states:

Flora of the Southeastern U.S. (Weakley et al. 2023) splits traditional Cornus into several genera (Chamaepericlymenum, Benthamidia, and Swida in our area) representing major clades in phylogenetic analysis. Even though Cornus treated broadly is monophyletic, the clades are also monophyletic and diverged millions of years ago, accorrding to Yu et al. (2017, PLOS One DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0171361) and Fu et al. (2019, Molec. Phylogen. & Evol. 140: 106601). As evolutionary lineages, these clades are far older than many groups treated by taxonomists as genera and clearly merit generic status.

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