Native Plant of the Week: Gray Dogwood

Family: Cornaceae

Name: Cornus racemosa - Gray Dogwood

Bloom Time: May - June

Flower: White

Soil Condition: Average, Moist, Wet

Light: Sun, Partial Shade

Height: 10-15' tall by 10-15' wide

Native Range: Eastern North America including Long Island

Zone: 4 to 8

Cornus racemosa is a great wildlife shrub that forms a thicket if left to naturalize. The flowers in the spring are great for native pollinators. White berries on showy red stems appear in the summer and are quickly gobbled up by small mammals. Fall color is purple, pink, yellow and green.

Maintenance: If necessary, remove root suckers to control spread

Benefits: Host plant to Spring Azure, Summer Azure and Gray Hairstreak butterflies, deer resistant, birds and mammals eat the berries, clay tolerant

Companion Plants: Symphyotrichum cordifolium - Blue Wood Aster, Polystichum acrostichoides - Christmas Fern, Geum fragarioides - Barren Strawberry, Eurybia macrophylla - Big Leaf Aster, Solidago caesia - Bluestem Goldenrod

pics: KMS Native Plants

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References:

1. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=cora6

2. https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/gray-dogwood/