Gray Dogwood

Ice

This past December fooled me. It was so warm. Not at all the way December is supposed to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains or in the Mid-Atlantic states. The whole month was that way. The warmth had me worried about how the rest of the winter would be.

But January came through for me. It’s been a nice frigid cold. Perfect. So far my cabin has been decorated by 17″ of beautiful snow. The first came on January 3rd. Those 9″ were the best, wet, clinging, heavy snow that stayed on the trees for several days. A perfect fairyland. These pictures are not of those snows but what winter also brings, the frosty cold, and with it, ICE.

The first image at the top of this post is of ice on the vernal pool at my yoga studio. The second is also at the yoga studio, and is of frost. And the photo just above this text is ice covered Blueberry buds. And no need to worry, the Blueberry flowers and the berries themselves were just fine, not damaged at all by the ice.

These buds are of Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). And again Mother Nature is a gentle artist, creating beautiful landscapes covered in ice and still those buds were not harmed. Going on to bloom, creating another gorgeous landscape of flowers a couple months later.

More ice and another Dogwood. This one Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) with its fruit stalks, or pedicels encrusted in ice.

And here, one of my favorite Pine trees. Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida). Plastered in ice. All this icy elegance, just one part of why winter is my favorite season.

White and Red Dogwood Berries

Autumn is approaching. The leaves of some Flowering Dogwoods are getting richer, more and more red. Their crimson berries, or drupes, are in abundance. This is the species of Dogwood that most people think of when “Dogwood” is mentioned.

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa). Two different Dogwood species. One of seventeen species native to North America. Like most Dogwood species, these two have opposite leaves as well as leaves with visible veins that curve parallel to the smooth edges.

Gray Dogwood’s creamy white berries are plentiful now too, much to the pleasure of Cardinals, Flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, Bluebirds and many other songbirds.

Flowering Dogwoods grow as single trees. Gray Dogwoods form colonies, by growing suckers and spreading. These dense colonies create a perfect space for nesting songbirds. Glad to see these berries. Autumn is approaching!

Just like the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) that we see most often, Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) has opposite leaves and those leaves look quite similar to Flowering Dogwood.

The flowers of Gray Dogwood arrive on dome shaped panicles, or branched clusters, in late May and June here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

The individual flowers in the panicles are one quarter inch across. Those flowers contain a short calyx with four small teeth, four creamy white petals, four stamens with soft yellow anthers, and a central pistil.

The branches of each panicle are creamy white like the petals, when the flowers are produced. In a short time they become bright red as the drupes, or fruit, matures. Anyone else see these as little teeny trees?

Nearly one hundred species of birds are attracted to these drupes from late summer into early autumn.

And as autumn descends upon these small trees the leaves turn a soft yellow with highlights of purply-red.

My favorite part of the year as Gray Dogwoods go through each of the seasons is of course, winter. Those teeny trees, which are actually the panicles that were in turn, for flowers and then, for drupes become the perfect receptacles for ice and iced spider webs as well.