There are two of these trees on the east side of the West End Community Centre in Vancouver, BC. The leaves are tough, around 5-6 inches long, don't seem hairy. What looks like a fruit seems to be a composite and is going brown directly from the green colour. The fruit that I cut open is less than an inch in diameter, but most are around one inch. They're very tough - I had to cut the one open; I was not able to tear it apart with my fingers, though once I cut it, I was able to pull apart the sections for the last photo. It looks like a miniature breadfruit (the fruit, not the leaves), but the fruits stand straight up on a one-inch stem. I'm curious to know what this is.
Expect it's Cornus nuttallii, Pacific dogwood. Some photos here http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=conu4_016_ahp.tif and http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/conu5a.htm
Hi, Chimera. Thanks for the reply. In the photos, it looks exactly like that. Cornus Nuttalli was actually suggested to me, so I've been looking up info and photos on it, but the trees that I thought were that were still in bloom, whereas a month ago when I first noticed these, they had no flowers or bracts, and the Oregon State link says the fruits are 1cm in diameter, which is what I've been seeing on other trees that I think are nuttalli. These fruits are all a lot larger than that - the small one I cut open is 2cm and the others are all more like 3cm. On these trees, it doesn't seem like any of the fruits will turn red before they dry up - they've been on the trees without the bracts for over a month and they're drying up green now (I don't really know the time line for dogwood fruit ripening, so maybe that's beside the point, and maybe some will actually turn before they dry up). Maybe there's a variety of nuttalli that has such large fruits? It does seem to have the slightly scalloped branches that dogwoods have.
Possibly Cornus nuttallii Colrigo giant. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11745&d=1145927396
Wendy, 2-3 cm. should be about normal fruit size right now and probably vary as to how many flowers were successfully pollinated, I'd guess. C. kousa seem ripe in October here, so guessing September - October for C. nuttallii as it usually blooms about a month earlier {early May} than C. kousa here. Not familiar with the C. nuttallii cultivars, other than 'Goldspot'. C. nuttallii often blooming again in mid - late August.
OK, I'm convinced. Thanks, Chimera and Luddite. I'll have to keep an eye out for the late August blooming.
I went by the trees again a few days ago without my camera but thought I'd still have time to get a shot of the fruits, and today when I looked, there are hardly any left on the tree, and there are absolutely none on the ground. In their stead on the tree are all these flower heads (second and third photos) - the bracts will be coming too? This is the supposed late August second blooming? Everything has been consistently two weeks late this year. Wow - is there a new photo viewer on hover? Scared me silly when I looked at my earlier posting! It doesn't come up on preview though. Or is it because I have Photoshop open? Nope, I've closed Photoshop now and it still opens the photos from just hovering over them. Cool.
Hi Wendy, looks like the tree already had it's second bloom and we're looking at unripened fruit in the second and third photos. The first photo would be riper fruit from the first bloom, would think. Maybe the birds eat the fruit.
I missed the flowers (bracts)? I thought I walked by those trees at least once a week. Maybe not. Rats. I thought the old fruits were drying up before turning red, so I was really pleased to at least get to see five red ones. And chimera, thanks too for the tip on the disappearance of the fruit. I found this quote on a Virginia flowering dogwoods page: Many, many birds and animals eat dogwood fruit. Some of them are: Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird, Dark-eyed Junco, Tufted Titmouse, American Robin, Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Tree Swallow, Raccoon, Red Fox, Eastern Chipmunk, American Crow, woodpeckers, Common Grackle, Common Starling, squirrels, Beaver, Striped Skunk, White-footed Mouse, and White-tailed Deer. I don't how how specific that is to Cornus nuttallii, but in the West End we do have juncos, starlings, robins, crows and I guess swallows, and plenty of raccoons, skunks and squirrels. They did a good job on these fruits. I should hire that crew to clean my apartment.
I've caught a squirrel at it twice now, though only once on camera. They're not actually all that tidy at it - so maybe it's a cooperative effort and the birds clean up after them.
Band-tailed pigeons like Pacific dogwood fruits. For a long time we had several big trees in various locations left from before development in my neighborhood but all are gone now. At fruiting time the pigeons would be on them. Seems like the plant partner for this bird in Audubon's print is also Pacific dogwood. Yep. http://images.google.com/images?um=...d-tailed+Pigeon,+plate+367&btnG=Search+Images
Re: Cornus nuttallii - Fruit looks like a one-inch breadfruit but upright I've got the flowers (bracts) now, from April 27. The yellow colour is really how they appear. We decided this is Cornus nuttallii.
Nice tree Wendy, would think it's the nicest dogwood. Apparently John Audobon named it after close friend Thomas Nuttall who recognized it as a new species at Fort Vancouver in 1834. The floral emblem of B.C. and they were protected by law from being cut down till a few years ago i believe.
