Dwarf Dogwood

[AlanLichty]

While driving down a forest service road in the Cascades last week I got stopped for a few minutes by the forest service while they were downing a tree they had deemed unsafe for the roadway. I glanced out my window while I was waiting and spotted a small patch of color right along the roadway and after determining that it wasn't litter decided to grab a shot since my camera was sitting right next to me. There were several blooms I did not recognize and the plant itself looks like a ground cover that is no more than an inch or two tall at most. My books identify it as a Dwarf Dogwood with flower colors that can be somewhat varied compared to the more familiar whites and yellows of the tree variants of this species.

I thought about trying to blur the background but in this case the background is so close I decided that would be highly unrealistic.

Dwarf Dogwood

• AlanLichty
• Jun 30, 2018

A small roadside patch of Dwarf Dogwoods in the Washington Cascades.

C&C always welcome.

 

[JimFox]

Dwarf Dogwood? How cool Alan. And that's great you could make use of your time will waiting for the road to open back up.

 

[Jim Dockery]

Nice work keeping your photographer's eye out.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Fantastic result here Alan, not only an unusual flower, but a great image.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

This is also known as bunchberry because the tightly bunched red berries at the center of the plant in late summer and fall. The color of this one is highly unusual. I have seen hundreds of these plants and have never seen anything but white. How lucky for you, Alan to have this opportunity. This is one of my favorite flowers. Nice job.

 

[AlanLichty]

This is also known as bunchberry because the tightly bunched red berries at the center of the plant in late summer and fall. The color of this one is highly unusual. I have seen hundreds of these plants and have never seen anything but white. How lucky for you, Alan to have this opportunity. This is one of my favorite flowers. Nice job.

Yup - my plant books show the berry clusters in the illustrations. The colors were quite notable which is why at first glance they might have been roadside litter. The purple spots just didn't look natural at all.

There is a creek named Bunchberry Creek along the South Shore Rd. at the east end of Lake Quinault. I have to presume that there should be an observable population of these given the name.

 

[Dean]

Very neat... the multi color bloom is very interesting. The full detail in the background works good here. Regards Dean