Is this Dogwood?

I bought six acres in northern Lower Michigan and have been working on it for four years now. I have removed a LOT of Autumn Olive. The deer like it, but it's non-native and I'd like to have primarily native plants. The land is a mix of a native Birch stand that I thinned out and removed competing shrubs and such, an open area for camp fires and where I will eventually build, a fairly large mix of hardwoods (about two acres), some swampland and a stream at the northern border. The rest is a mix of brush and small trees mixed in. I know that the Autumn Olive is great for birds too, but no matter how hard I try I'll never get rid of all of it. If this is Dogwood and it is native I would remove more Autumn Olive where this "shrub" would take over. The birds seem to like the berries that I'll attach in the next post (don't know if I can post multiple pics in one post here). If this plant is another non-native I'd consider removing it, along with the Autumn Olive and planting native plants while I'm still young enough to do the work and have time to let it grow. Six acres is a lot to manage on a remote property, so I can only get a little done at a time. Thanks in advance for a positive ID.

Mark

Here are the berries.

Looks as if you've got a Dogwood there. Leaves are opposite and veining is arcuate. The margin is entire. If you tear a leaf it should ooze a little bit of a stringy latex substance.

Cornus drummondii?

I can't see that well but also check Cornus racemosa. It doesn't seem right for Cornus sericea but that also has a white berry.

You might want to post your pictures over in out Idenitification Forum. You'd probably get a positive ID in all of one hour even without close up photos.

Equil, you beat me to it. It looks like racemosa. At least I think it is. The little sticks that hold the berries are usually red on racemosa or Gray dogwood. I have a ton of it and I love it as do the butterflies and the birds. It is very hardy and has been described as being able to take a nuclear holocaust. It makes a gorgeous hedge. You can mow it to the ground every so often and it comes back thicker and more beautiful than ever. Enjoy.

Hello stranger! Welcome back!

I can't tell from the photos but let me do a quick search for images of Cornus drummondii. Both are indigenous to the area in which he lives. Both are rhizomatous.

Be back.

Hi there, I love shrubby dogwoods!! Do tell us what you find out.

I think it's going to come down to him feeling up his leaves. There's a reason why the common name of C. drummondii is Rough-Leaved Dogwood.
http://missouriplants.com/Whiteopp/Cornus_drummondii_leaf_abaxial.jpg

Cornus drummondii-
http://biology.missouristate.edu/Herbarium/Plants%20of%20the%20Interior%20Highlands/Flowers/Cornus%20drummondii%20-%201.jpg
http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/c/wcodr--fr29567.jpg
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mbierner/bio406d/images/pics/crn/cornus.drummondii.frt.jpg
http://missouriplants.com/Whiteopp/Cornus_drummondii_plant.jpg
http://missouriplants.com/Whiteopp/Cornus_drummondii_leaves.jpg

Sounds like a great piece of property to enjoy wildlife! Nice size and the addition of the swamp and stream should give you lots of opportunities to see wonderful things. You're in great hands for the plant ID, just thought I'd say congrats on the property!
Sheri

A swamp! Did he type he has a swamp on his new property? I have to go back and re-read what he typed.

Way to go if you got a swamp as well as a stream in the package. Water is a critter magnet!

Well, swamp, marsh, whatever. It floods when Lake Michigan is high and is now just a slow flowing stream. It is really a flood plain, technically. A birder's spot to stop and take a look; Arcadia Marsh:

http://www.benzieaudubon.org/hotspots.html
They are always at the bridge where the property ends.

The first time I took my boat out of this port a Bald Eagle graced me with taking a fish just yards away from my boat. Cedar Waxwings are so abundant that you don't notice them much. Sandhill Cranes wake us every morning. Great Horned Owls make their presence known at night. Barn Swallows nest under the docks for most of the fishing season. Cliff Swallows have a colony at the local excavator's sand pit every year. I really don't have time to bird watch because it's fishing camp, but the Catbirds were SO funny when I was taking pictures! There must have been a late nest or they were just upset. I couldn't get a good shot of one, but they just screamed and bounced around until I got out of there. :-)

This message was edited Aug 7, 2006 11:17 PM

We'll just call it a wetlands. That works. Whatever you have there, wetlands attract the critters. Lucky lucky lucky you!

I'm going to change what I think your Dogwood is to C. racemosa like what von thought based on the information you provided about being in a flood plain.

C. drummondii, like racemosa, can grow in shade to full sun but racemosa likes it wet.

Thanks everyone. I'll start getting skewered by the Autumn Olive thorns when I get back to work up there and make more room for the Dogwood to spread. The area that the Dogwood is in isn't in the actual flood plain, but since we have a few Cattails near them I'm sure that it's wet enough!

Yes, we have critters galore. I don't have to dispose of my Salmon and Trout carcasses. I just carry them far enough away that we don't smell them. Something takes care of them for us. I hope that it wasn't the Bear that was sighted just outside of town recently. Probably Coons, Skunk, Coyote, Fox . . . They don't even leave the bones or heads! Not exactly "gardening for wildlife", but if I buried the fish for fertilizer I think that the critters would dig them up anyway.

We have had a terrible time with Spotted Knapweed. I think that we have a handle on it now. Looking forward to letting the Milkweed and other native plants move in to our cleared area.