State Flower Of Virginia

American Dogwood Is The Official State Flower Of Virginia. Virginia adopted the American Dogwood (Cornus Florida) as the official state floral emblem in 1918. Very few states in the country including Virginia can claim that their state flower was a favorite to some of the founding fathers of the United States. Thomas Jefferson loved the Virginia State Flower American Dogwood and had them planted on his Virginia estate during the 1770s. The connection between the American dogwood and Thomas Jefferson is the main reason why the state’s legislators made it the State Flower Of Virginia.

The American Dogwood can reach 30-40 feet high. Its trunk is covered by a block-like bark that helps to distinguish the Dogwood from other trees when it is not in bloom. These blooms on Dogwarood are actually not flowers at all, but bracts that attract pollinators toward the tree’s true flowers. The Dogwood’s true blooms are small, yellow flowers that grow in a cluster at the center of the bracts. When pollinated, the fertilized ovaries at the center of the flowers produce oval green fruit. The tree has small inconspicuous flowers that have four greenish-yellow bracts which are about 0.16 inches long.

The State Flower Of Virginia’s head has a diameter of about 0.7 inches. While it blooms in springtime, Virginia State Flower is splendid year-round. Flowers from the Dogwood disappear in summer leaving an attractive dark green behind. In fall, Dogwood’s leaves offer a dazzling display of color in red, orange and scarlet, and its berries are colorful red. Even in winter, the Dogwood’s buds give the tree an elegant silhouette.

Facts About American Dogwood

• American Dogwoods are the hard deciduous flowering plants growing to 15 to 20 feet tall.
• There are deeply notched bracts near the cluster of flowers, (this formation is often mistaken for the flower).
• There are small berries or fruits(drupes) are scarlet red, oval-shaped growing in clusters, with 1-2 seeds inside it.
• American Dogwoods plant’s bark is deeply ridged, rough, broken, and resembles crocodile skin.
• In the fall, the tree becomes yellow through red, but usually dark red.