A catalog of Native North American Dye Plants : Cornus florida

Cornus florida

Common name:  flowering dogwood

Flowering Dogwood as the name, is a species of flowering tree in the family Cornaceae native to eastern North America and northern Mexico. Flowering dogwood is a small deciduous tree growing to 10 m (33 ft) high, often wider than it is tall when mature, the leaves are opposite, simple, ovate and the leaves turn a rich red-brown in fall. The flowers are individually small and inconspicuous, with four greenish-yellow bracts. Around 20 flowers are produced in a dense, rounded, umbel-shaped flower-head. The flower-head is surrounded by four conspicuous large white, pink or red "petals". The fruit is a cluster of two to ten separate drupes, which ripen in the late summer and the early fall to a bright red, or occasionally yellow with a rosy blush. They are an important food source for dozens of species of birds. Native Americans used the bark and roots in a remedy for malaria; a red dye was also extracted from the roots. The species has been used in the production of inks, scarlet dyes, and as a quinine substitute. The hard, dense wood has been used for products such as golf club heads, mallets, wooden rake teeth, tool handles, jeweler's boxes and butcher's block

Dye Colors: Black, Brown, Green, Yellow, Orange