PlantFiles: Pagoda Dogwood, Green Osier
Cornus alternifolia

Beautiful tree with such delicate-looking, arching branches. Native in my state of Indiana. This tree grows for me in what is almost full shade.

Pagoda Dogwood is also know as Green Osier and Alternate-Leaved Dogwood. A must have in any wildlife garden. Squirrels love to feed on its fruits and at least 11 species of birds including ruffed grouse eat it. The leaves and stems are eaten by white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits, and beavers.

These little trees starting popping up in our wooded property after most of the Cornus florida were wiped out by anthracnose. The flowers are dainty and quite pretty, although not as showy as the flowering dogwood were. The blue berries are also lovely, at least until the birds find them. These trees are quite forgiving, very easy to transplant when small, and seem to thrive on neglect.

Native here in the Wabash Valley, this very large shrub responds well to serious pruning. Wild clumps lose tops regularly to flooding and brush cutting. The new shoots often rise up as much as 4' in the first year and display the multi-storied "pagoda" form handsomely 3-5 years on. These tops are short-lived, but, as with Redbuds, the roots can send up substantial new stems when the tops die or are pushed over or cut back.

Very nice form to this Native Dogwood, which is what a botanist in Ohio here told me this was after searching forever trying to identify it, lovely clusters of white flowers in late spring, as they ripen they turn from a white berry to a gorgeous "metallic" looking blue berry. If you intend to collect seeds, here we have to bag the seedhead to get to them before the birds!!! They love wet feet!!!!! they actually flourish near my swamp.

UPDATE 4/2006, after the flood last year it was broken off to about a foot tall (Feb 2005) it's now coming back and those branches that had broken and were laying in soil have taken root, it's easily started from cuttings or just portions that lay in the soil, so could be invasive in a smaller garden setting, I however still love it and am delighted that it's coming along nicely

This tree suffers considerable die-back in dry conditions, but more than makes up for that in its ability to produce healthy new branches that grow rapidly. A very beautiful tree.