Effects of Flowering Dogwoods on an Ecosystem

Food for Wildlife

• Flowering dogwoods produce red fruits in the fall, which provide food for at least 36 species of birds, including bobwhite quail and wild turkey. Foxes, skunks, chipmunks, black bears, squirrels and many other mammals also eat its fruits. Rabbits and deer browse their leaves and twigs. Flowering dogwoods have a high calcium and fat content which is extremely beneficial to wildlife.

Insect Life

• Insects are essential to a healthy ecosystem and flowering dogwoods host a wide range. Scale insects such as the scurfy scale and dogwood scale are known pests of dogwoods, as well as borers such as the flatheaded borer and the dogwood twig borer. Insects that feed on its leaves include the redhumped caterpillar, io moth and scarab beetle. The flowering dogwood hosts two non-native species of insect: the Japanese weevil and the Asiatic oak weevil.

Role in Forests

• Flowering dogwoods are important trees in forests. They grow in the understory, or lower layer, of trees and their fallen leaves are a rich source of nutrients for the soil. They compost very quickly compared to other species -- three times faster than hickory, for example -- and release the essential elements potassium, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium and sulfur into the soil. Other plants then use these to grow. Its leaves also improve the soil structure and help retain water through providing fiber.

Life Cycle

• Flowering dogwoods begin to flower and produce fruit at around six years old. Animals spread the seeds by eating the fruit and defecating the seeds away from the tree. Seeds usually germinate the following spring, or sometimes the second spring. Seedling roots develop rapidly. Trees grow throughout the summer, only stopping when conditions do not suit them, such as in times of drought. On a good site, trees grow 30 to 40 feet tall.