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Cornus sericea
Also called Red Osier Dogwood, Red Twig Dogwood, Red Osier Cornel, Red Osier Dogwood, Red Willow, Redosier, American Dogwood, Bailey's Dogwood
Redosier dogwood is a deciduous shrub native to much of North America, grown mainly for its bright red winter stems and spreads readily by underground stolons. It is easy to grow in moist, well-drained soil and tolerates wet sites.
Cornus sericea, the red osier or red-osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae, native to much of North America. It has sometimes been considered a synonym of the Asian species Cornus alba. Other names include red brush, red willow, redstem dogwood, redtwig dogwood, red-rood, American dogwood, creek dogwood, and western dogwood.
Cornus sericea is a popular ornamental shrub that is often planted for the red coloring of its twigs in the dormant season. The cultivars 'Bud's Yellow', 'Flaviramea' with lime green stems, and 'Hedgerows Gold' (variegated foliage) have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (confirmed in 2017).
Like most dogwood species native to North America, C. sericea can be parasitized by the dogwood sawfly, possibly leaving much of the plant devoid of leaves. A variety of pesticides are effective; however, hand-picking the larvae is also an option.
It is native throughout boreal and temperate zones in northern and western North America from Alaska east to Newfoundland, south to Durango and Nuevo León in the west, and Illinois and Virginia in the east.
Cornus sericea is frequently used for waterway bank erosion protection and restoration in the United States and Canada. Its root system provides excellent soil retention, it is hardy and provides an attractive shrub even when bare in winter, and its ability to be reproduced by cuttings makes it a low-cost solution for large-scale plantings.
Red-Barked Dogwood · Alternateleaf dogwood · Canadian Bunchberry · Bentham's cornel · Giant dogwood · Flowering dogwood · Kousa dogwood · Cornelian-cherry · Pacific dogwood · Asiatic dogwood · Bloodtwig dogwood · Western cordilleran bunchberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cornus sericea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
