Flora of North America species comparison

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Cornus asperifolia

eastern roughleaf dogwood, toughleaf dogwood
Habit Shrubs, to 4 m, flowering at 1.5 m; rhizomes present.
Stems

solitary, 1–5 dm apart;

bark gray, splitting into small plates;

branchlets green to bronze, often tinged with maroon, densely pubescent;

lenticels inconspicuous on new growth, periderm around them swelling to form broad raised areas on 2d year branches;

pith white.
Leaves

petiole 2–7 mm;

blade elliptic to ovate, 3–8.5 × 2–4 cm, base usually rounded, sometimes cuneate, apex acute, abaxial surface pale green, hairs erect, curling, white, adaxial surface dark green, hairs spreading to erect, occasionally 1 arm appressed;

secondary veins 3–4 per side, evenly spaced.
Inflorescences

pyramidal, 2–5 cm diam., peduncle 15–45 mm;

branches and pedicels yellow-green, turning maroon in fruit.
Flowers

hypanthium densely appressed-hairy;

sepals 0.2–0.8 mm;

petals white, 1.7–2.4 mm.
Drupes

blue to whitish blue, globose, 4–7 mm diam.;

stone globose, 3–5 mm diam., smooth or slightly grooved, apex rounded.

Cornus asperifolia
Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun; fruiting Aug–Sep.
Habitat Marl or limestone outcrops, hammocks, swamp margins.
Elevation 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

G. V. Nash (1896b) collected Cornus asperifolia at River Junction, Florida; based on the conflicting reports of fruit colors given by A. W. Chapman (1860) and J. M. Coulter and W. H. Evans (1890) for the two rough-leaved dogwoods (C. asperifolia and C. drummondii), Nash decided to name the rough-leaved dogwood of Florida with blue fruit as C. microcarpa. However, the description by Michaux, even without a reference to fruit color, cannot apply to C. drummondii, because the locality is given as “Carolinae inferioris,” and C. drummondii does not occur in South Carolina.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 455.
Parent taxa Cornaceae > Cornus > subg. Thelycrania
Sibling taxa
C. alternifolia, C. amomum, C. canadensis, C. drummondii, C. florida, C. foemina, C. glabrata, C. kousa, C. mas, C. nuttallii, C. obliqua, C. occidentalis, C. racemosa, C. rugosa, C. sanguinea, C. sericea, C. sessilis, C. suecica, C. unalaschkensis
Synonyms C. excelsa var. beyrichiana, C. foemina subsp. microcarpa, C. microcarpa, C. sericea var. asperifolia, C. stricta var. asperifolia, Swida asperifolia, S. microcarpa
Name authority Michaux: Fl. Bor. Amer. 1: 93. (1803)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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