Wood: The
reddish-brown wood is hard, heavy and close-grained, but is not used commercially.
Wildlife: Many species of songbirds and gamebirds eat the fruits. Squirrels and small mammals eat the fruits and leaves and white-tailed deer eat the twigs and foliage.
Horticulture: Often called the "pagoda dogwood," this species, with its Y-type horizontal branching is useful for naturalized areas where horizontal emphasis is required. With its excellent textural effect, this dogwood is useful in woodland and shrub border plantings. In Iowa the flowering dogwood (C. florida) is seldom planted and the alternate-leafed dogwood (C. alternifolia) has become quite popular. "Argentea" is a an attractive variegated cultivar with smaller leaves. This photograph shows this species flowering on the south-east corner of Pearson Hall.
