Red Osier Dogwood

Order: Cornales, Family: Cornaceae, Genus: Cornus,

-Two main groups of Cornus are "red line" dogwoods, with showy bracts below the flowers and red fruit, and "blue line" dogwoods, without bracts and blue or white fruit.
-Red Osier Dogwood is widespread and variable; similar populations have been considered variously as separate but interbreeding species, subspecies, and varieties.

-Leaves opposite with prominent lateral veins that curve toward the tip and smooth edges.
-Stems and twigs dark red when young, gradually fading to grey-green, becoming red again in the fall and winter.

-Flowers small and white, borne in a flat-topped cluster and, unlike many dogwoods, there are no large, showy bracts.
-Fruit berrylike, white or lead colored at maturity.

Food and cover for white-tailed deer, moose, cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares, and numerous birds, including grouse. Fruit also eaten by mice and other mammals. Deer mice, meadow voles, and other small rodents feed on the young stems and bark. Beavers use it for food and to build dams and lodges. Particularly important to moose in the winter; it is also used in the summer and in the fall when leaves that have escaped and May. Provides valuable cover for birds and other small animals, especially where it grows in thickets.
Fruit is low in sugar so it is initially less attractive to wildlife and less inclined to rot than other fruits, staying on the plant through the winter and availabile when other fruits are gone. Eaten by songbirds, grouse, quail, partridge, ducks, crows, and other birds.