Pacific Dogwood

Cornus nuttallii

One of the Pacific Northwest’s loveliest native trees, Pacific dogwood produces large white flowers in spring, followed by bright red fruit, then  brilliant fall foliage color. It can be seen during bloom time peppered into the forest canopy throughout the region. Unlike most ornamental dogwoods, it can grow to be a very large tree, competing with doug-firs and bigleaf maples for space in the forest canopy. It’s also unique in that the large flowers sometimes have 4 ‘petals’ (actually they’re bracts) and sometimes 5 on the same tree. A lot of animals like the juicy red fruits.