***NY- Vulnerable***

    Flowering Dogwood is one of several Dogwoods in New York State, but it is also the most showy and conspicuous.  Most Dogwoods have a small head of very small flowers, but Flowering Dogwood flowers are large and showy.  Each "flower" (what looks like petals are really the sterile bracts) is 2-4" wide and they are evenly spaced throughout the plant.  The actual flowers are small, green and in the center of the bracts, which have a notched tip.  It flowers in late spring when it can be seen from far away as a white streak on a green background.  Flowering Dogwood grows best in open woods.  This is another plant that is afforded some protection by NY's exploitably vulnerable law.