Flowering Dogwood Common Name: Flowering Dogwood Botanical Name: Cornus florida Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art · Explaining Cultivar Transcript Read More CULTIVARS, VARIETIES, AND SPECIES TRANSCRIPT NARRATOR: Horticulturalist Cody George discusses the presence of butterfly milkweed in the museum landscape, and the development of the Monarch Way Station at Crystal Bridges. CODY GEORGE: In the horticulture industry, there’s a certain lingo that is used, and one of the words is cultivar. A cultivar literally means a cultivated variety, and the cultivar is selected and cultivated by humans. That could be a hybrid of a plant, or it could be a mutation or a spore of a plant that is selected because of a bigger flower, or a different foliage color. That plant is raised in a lab on some extent, and it is not necessarily true to type, so the seeds or a cutting of the cultivar may not resemble the plant that you took it from – it would actually revert back to its parent plant. Another word that is used often is [variety,] and the difference between a cultivar and a variety is that a variety occurs in nature and are mostly true to type. If you took a cutting or if you collected seed from a variety of a plant, it would share the same characteristics of the parent plant. Varieties are introduced into the horticulture industry by an individual who notices that a specific wild plant has a different characteristic, so it could have a larger bloom. Seeds would be collected from that plant, cuttings would be taken, and the plants are then entered into a field trial. After they write down the different characteristics, they put it on the market. Another word that is used often in the horticulture industry is a [species] of a plant, and a species is in correlation with the botanical nomenclatures. So although there’s a common name, like a flowering dogwood, there’s also a botanical name that goes to it. The botanical name for the flowering dogwood is [Cornus florida.] The first part of [Cornus florida] is the genus name. The second part is the species name, which is [florida.] So in the genus [Cornus,] there are different species names. Flowering Dogwood Plant family: Cornaceae Location: Art Trail, North Forest Trail Growing zone: 4a-9 Height: 12-20 ft. Spread: 12-20 ft. Bloom time: March Bloom description: Bright white bracts surround greenish-yellow flowers. The bracts are modified leaves and are often mistaken for the flowers. Bracts serve as a flashy “landing strip” for bees that might overlook the insignificant flowers. The flowers give way to bright red, attractive fruit in the fall. Leaf type: Dark-green leaves turn burgundy in fall. Garden uses: Flowering Dogwood is a good choice for specimen plantings or in group plantings. Although thought of as an understory tree, they can take a fair amount of sun, where they produce more blooms and fruit. Wildlife benefits: The fruit is a source of food for migrating birds and small mammals.
