trees of the forest: flowering dogwood

Seeing these trees makes me happy. I noticed a few last year, but now I see that they are everywhere around here. I even like the scientific name of the Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida. Luckily we are just within their growing region, right at the northwestern edge (according to the map at the wiki link above).

I learned that the white petals are actually called bracts and that the flowers are actually the cluster in the center (not open yet in these photos). For comparison, you can see what they looked like a month ago here.

I’ve taken lots of pictures of them since they are so photogenic, but I can’t quite seem to capture the elegance I see. Our field guide calls them “one of the most beautiful eastern North American trees” and I definitely agree.