Easily recognized by its rough leaves, white fruits, and purplish-red fall foliage, roughleaf dogwood quickly grows up to 16 feet in wet or dry conditions and a wide variety of soils, including poor and rocky. This shrubby bush can be pruned into a small tree, and it thrives in full or part sun and moist soils. It features flat-topped clusters of yellowish-white flowers May through June and white berry-like drupes on red stems in August. The fruits persist through fall, contrasting nicely with the burgundy fall foliage and feeding over 40 species of birds. The plant can spread by rhizomes to form large, dense thickets of intertwining branches. Because roughleaf dogwood grows so quickly, it’s used as a buffer plant around parking lots, in the medians of highways, and near the decks and patios of homes. Buffer plants help to control erosion, filter water and air, and provide cover for wildlife. Mass plantings of roughleaf dogwood—whether in boggy areas, on the banks of ponds or streams, or as informal hedges—create a wildlife habitat that attracts multitudes of pollinators, birds, and nesting animals.
Native habitats include rocky woodlands, floodplain woodlands, prairies, thickets, and woods near rivers and streams. Consider siting on woodland edges or in naturalistic plantings in moist soils where it can spread and form thickets. These plants also make nice specimen trees and additions to pollinator gardens.
Plant Characteristics:
Grows 6-16’ tall and wide.
Prefers full or part sun.
Grows in average-to-wet soils, including poor and clay. Tolerates drier conditions, drought, and extreme cold.
Tiny, yellowish-white, 4-petaled flowers appear in flat-topped clusters (up to 2.5” in diameter) on the ends of branches in April-May. Flowers give way to clusters of fleshy, white drupes with a single seed.
Elliptic-to-oval, opposite leaves have smooth margins and are 4-8” long and 2-4” wide. Upper surfaces are rough and hairy, and undersides are lighter green and downy. Fall color is purplish red.
Stems are reddish brown and bark is light gray and scaly.
Wildlife Value:
Host plant for 111 species of Lepidoptera larvae, including the io, funerary dagger, and hickory horned devil moths. The flowers provide much-needed nectar for pollinators such as honey and native bees, butterflies, and other insects. The berries provide high-calorie food for many birds and small animals, including foxes, skunks, and rabbits as well as wild turkeys, bob-white quail, deer, and insects. Various small birds nest in the thickets, which also provide cover for other wildlife. Deer and rabbits browse on the tender shoots and new leaves.
Medicinal, Edible, and Other Uses:
Dogwood has been used to treat headaches, fevers, and diarrhea. It is used as a tonic and appetite stimulant. An infusion of the stems has been used to treat gonorrhea.
The fruits are not edible for humans.
The wood is heavy, durable, and close grained.