Cornus racemosa (Northern Swamp Dogwood or Gray Dogwood) is a shrubby plant native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It is a member of the dogwood genus Cornus and the family Cornaceae.
Plants can produce many stems and suckers, with older stems, which can reach 5 metres (16 ft) in height, having distinctive gray bark. The plant grows upright with a rounded habit and oppositely arranged leaves and terminally born flowers. The white flowers are small, with four petals, and clustered together in rounded, 2-inch-wide (51 mm) clusters called cymose panicles, produced in May and early June. After flowering, green fruits are produced that turn white in late summer. The white fruits, or drupes, are attached to the plant by bright red pedicels. Many species of birds feed on the fruits. Old branches grow slowly, while new stems are fast growing. In the fall the foliage can take on a reddish or purplish color, though it is not overly showy from a distance.
A synonymous name for the species is Swida racemosa.
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or swamp:
“Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I see less difference between a city and a swamp than formerly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)