Missouri’s state tree is the flowering dogwood, also Virginia’s state tree. It has white bracts surrounding small yellow flowers, turns red in fall, and grows up to 40 feet. Its wood is strong and used for golf clubs, weaving tools, and medicine. The name “dogwood” may come from a dog mange remedy.
Missouri’s state tree is Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, which is also the state tree of Virginia. The tree is valued in the home landscape for its beautiful white flowers, which botanists say are not flowers at all, but the bracts surrounding the dogwood’s true small yellow flowers. The Missouri State Tree flowers in the spring, and in the fall its leaves turn red, along with a display of red berries. Flowering dogwood does not usually grow to be more than 30 feet (9.14 meters) tall, but under ideal conditions it has been known to grow up to 40 feet (12.19 meters).
The flowering dogwood was adopted as the state tree of Missouri in 1955. The strong wood can withstand great stress, and is used to make products that take a beating, such as golf club heads, clubs. Dogwood wood is also used to make weavers’ wedges, knitting needles, pulleys, and shuttles. In fact, shuttle makers used nearly all dogwood harvested in the 1800s. Other uses for dogwood during the 1800s included artificial teeth and special sticks called chew sticks that were rubbed against the teeth as a method of cleaning.
Native Americans also used the wood in their medicines and everyday life. Their medicinal uses included a concoction made from the bark to fight fevers, and they shared this remedy with the pioneers. Native Americans also used dogwood to treat colic and chills, and another concoction protected the gums. Doctors during the Civil War, unable to obtain the preferred type of tree bark used to make quinine, a treatment for malaria, turned to a dogwood treatment and achieved success.
One theory as to the origin of the name “dogwood” is rooted in dog care, but the theory is unconfirmed: Dogs with mange were once bathed in a liquid made from the bark of the tree to cure the affliction. Other dog-related names for the tree include hound tree, blueberry tree, and dog berry. Popular names for the Missouri state tree are green wicker and flowering dogwood.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
