# 3197 - 1998 32c Flowering Trees: Pacific Dogwood

 

Issue Date: March 19, 1998
City: New York, NY
Printed By: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: Die Cut 11.3
Color: Multicolored

 

The Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) is one of North America’s finest ornamental trees. Sometimes called the western flowering dogwood, it is actually very similar to the flowering dogwood found in the eastern United States. Dogwoods are generally small   trees. The Pacific species, though, usually reaches a more majestic height than others, growing as tall as 60 to 75 feet.

 

The largest of these trees can be found in the Puget Sound basin of northwest Oregon and in the redwood forests of northern California. The Pacific dogwood is common in bottomlands, moist river soils, and on mountains. It grows in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, as well as in the mountains of northern and southern California.

 

This tree bears a small red clustering fruit. Each of its numerous yellow-green flowers is surrounded by four to six showy white bracts – modified leaves that look like large petals. These bracts are a significant and beautiful feature of the Pacific dogwood. The flower buds are visible in winter and open in May. The tree often flowers a second time late in the summer as the fruits of the first flowering are turning red. In the fall, the leaves change from green to orange and red in color.