Local help with ID

I just posted a mystery tree in the Plant ID forum and thought some of you locals might be able to help me figure out what it is. It's just growing out back among my alders, so I'm fairly certain it is a native of some sort. It gets flowers and nice fall color. Not sure if berries also, I'll have to wait and see on that. Definitely a keeper, I'm snipping the blackberries away from it for encouragement. Here's the thread. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1103051/

Not a cascara. The leaves do look like cornus - it sure is blemish free!

It's a type of cornus and I can't remember which one, so that's not really helpful, I guess. I have one just like it and the tree grows to be about 15 feet tall and has a graceful canopy. It does put out runners that have to be controlled to keep it in tree form. This is what mine looks like in April. I keep it pruned fairly actively.

Well, I'm happy to have it growing wild. I first noticed it last fall as a splash of red in the midst of a bunch of nondescript alders and Indian plum. Runners as opposed to suckers? I'll have to watch for that and perhaps relocate any new volunteers. The Plant ID forum tagged it as a red osier dogwood, but I continue to have reservations - my red osiers all have more of a bush habit and are a definite red especially during winter. This plant is clearly growing as a tree, has some red twigging at the tips, but the main trunk is a greenish yellow. Pixie, if you happen to remember the name of yours, I'd be interested in looking it up for comparison.

I'm keeping it on the back burner so maybe it will emerge. I remember having a hard time identifying it. Mine is most definitely a tree and not like the shrubby red osier dogwood, and the red is really only on the stems of the flowers. It makes dark purple berries. Yes probably runners rather than suckers, although things do shoot up from the larger roots.

I also have one of those trees - actually two. I think the smaller one is from a runner. They get fragrant white flowers. My neighbor told me what it was but of course I forgot because I never have a paper and pencil with me to write down what she says. I think the female gets some kind of pod. It's a very graceful tree and I like it.

How about C. alternifolia - pagoda dogwood ?? But Art Kruckeberg does not include it in his "Gardening with Native Plants of the PNW," nor it is in my native field guide. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1771/

Bonehead, I agree with the cornus verdict, and had been wondering about the same tree behind my big pond for several years. I had decided that it was red osier dogwood, and that the shrubby form that you purchase at the nurseries may have been pruned to that form.

http://green.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Plant.aspx?Act=view&PlantID=32

Mine is a nice grove that right now is definitely growing in standing water, and it is all tree like rather than shrubby. If it is not monsooning tonight, I will try to take a picture.

I bought several red osier dogwood from a local native nursery (run by WSU I believe) a few years back. They started out as single whips, and have all filled in with multiple stems coming from the base. Both the main stems and side stems are gorgeous red, and are filling in rather than shooting up (I expect maximum height to be 15'). My mystery dogwood is young, already at least 15', and the one main trunk and side branches are more of a yellow-green. They do get red toward the tips, which is pretty, and the branching is very definitely horizontal - long leggy arms. I will wait to see what type of fruit they get, as the mystery continues. Meanwhile, I'm digging through all my various tree books trying to pin it down.

Pix is your dogwood "Cornelian Cherry" Cornus mas? It looks like mine but much bigger. Flowers are insignificant but smell kind of like vanilla?

Is this your tree?

Clerodendron trichotomum

I was looking at a viburnum tonight while waiting for the light and wondering if your tree wasn't a viburnum. Lots of options, BH.

No, I'm fairly sure it's a cornus, and it's not cornas mas. The flowers are white, in small bunches at the end of each branch and branchlet. I'm not sure about the vanilla smell, I'll have to see. The flowers are above my head. I'll have to take a photo of mine when it's in bloom. It definitely likes wet places because this soil was such mucky clay that it smelled bad when I dug into it. anaerobic bacteria. The tree loved it. It seems just as happy now that there is better, but not much better, drainage.

Well, I'm rather enjoying the sleuthing to properly identify this 'walk-on,' welcome as it is.