Native Dogwood

The Pacific Dogwood is a species of dogwood native to western North America from the lowlands of southern British Columbia to the mountains of southern California. Its glorious floral beauty makes dogwoods beloved trees.

I found a lovely specimen this morning on the Chehalis Western Trail, Olympia, Washington.



Don't you just love the grace and beauty of the flowers?



Interesting facts:

The Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttalli) is also known as Western Flowering Dogwood, Mountain Dogwood.

John James Audubon (1780-1851), the American ornithologist and artist, who painted this tree in his famous work Birds of America, named it for its collector, Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), the British-American botanist and ornithologist.

The theory is that 'dogwood' comes from the Sanskrit word for 'skewers' - 'dag'.

'Cornus' means horn and is supposedly refers to the hard wood.

'Nuttallii' is for the botanist Thomas Nuttall.

The Pacific Dogwood is prevented by law from being dug up or cut down.

The Pacific Dogwood is the floral emblem of British Columbia.

The elongated, dark, red berries are edible but bitter, and stay on the tree after leaves have fallen.