{"id":4876,"date":"2022-07-22T13:00:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=pal&#038;p=4876"},"modified":"2024-04-11T10:01:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T17:01:44","slug":"dogwood-with-anomalous-flowers","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/dogwood-with-anomalous-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogwood with anomalous flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Can you explain an unusual phenomenon? I thought dogwood flowers had four petals, but I have seen a tree that has anywhere from four to six. Is this normal?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are dogwood species, such as <em>Cornus mas<\/em> and <em>Cornus sericea<\/em>, that lack showy bracts, so I imagine you are looking at a species that develops flowers at the same time as leaves (the true flowers are tiny, and clustered in a button shape in the center of the bracts). <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.ashs.org\/hortsci\/view\/journals\/hortsci\/51\/5\/article-p592.xml\"><em>Cornus florida<\/em> \u2018Appalachian Joy\u2019<\/a> is an example of a dogwood that has supernumerary bracts. The number of bracts can be variable, as with <em><a href=\"https:\/\/landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu\/plants\/cornus-nuttallii\">Cornus nuttallii<\/a>,<\/em> which can have between four and eight unnotched bracts (the lack of notches distinguishes Pacific dogwood from <em>Cornus florida<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>Portland&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoytarboretum.org\/ask-an-expert-distinctive-dogwoods-at-hoyt-arboretum\/\">Hoyt Arboretum blog<\/a> has a helpful post by taxonomist and herbarium curator Mandy Tu about <a href=\"https:\/\/v2k9y3k8.stackpathcdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Ornamental-Dogwoods.jpg\">types of dogwoods<\/a> which should clarify some of the puzzling floral anatomy. About the species that bloom and leaf out at the same time, she explains that &#8220;the large showy &#8216;petals&#8217; are actually involucral bracts (essentially a whorl of modified leaves) that have the appearance of flower petals! These bracts likely function to attract insect pollinators, as well as to protect the actual flowers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"taxonomy-keyword has-text-align-right wp-block-post-terms\"><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/keyword\/cornus\/\" rel=\"tag\">Cornus<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you explain an unusual phenomenon? I thought dogwood flowers had four petals, but I have seen a tree that has anywhere from four to six. Is this normal? &nbsp; There are dogwood species, such as Cornus mas and Cornus sericea, that lack showy bracts, so I imagine you are looking at a species that develops flowers at the same time as leaves (the true flowers are tiny, and clustered in a button shape in the center of the bracts)&#8230;.<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/dogwood-with-anomalous-flowers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dogwood with anomalous flowers<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[251],"class_list":["post-4876","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-cornus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/4876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=4876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}