Cornus nuttallii

Pacific dogwood is in the genus Cornus of the dogwood family Cornaceae and is native to western North America from the lowlands of southern British Columbia to the mountains of southern California.

Like the related C. florida, it is very susceptible to dogwood anthracnose, a disease caused by the fungus Discula destructiva, restricting its use as an ornamental tree.

• Leaves are opposite, simple, ovate to obovate, 7—12 cm long, veins curing towards the tip of the leaf.
• Flowers are tiny, born in a dense, rounded head, lacking petals. The head is surrounded by 4 or 6 creamy white 'petals' (actually are bracts). The flowers appear to bloom twice a year, once in prolifically in the spring and again in less vigorously in the fall. However, the fall flowering is actually a false flowering, with white bracts appearing on the maturing buds but not actually flowering or and producing fruit. These false flowers continue on as maturing reproductive buds and actually fully flower in the spring.
• Fruit produced in the spring will be visible by fall as clusters of pink-red compound berries 2–4 cm in diameter (i.e., the individual berries or 'drupes' are fused together). These berries are not as uniform as those of kousa dogwood and don't have kousa berry's long stems.