Roughleaved Dogwood, leaves emerging . . . North America. (Cornus asperifolia)

A beautiful small tree, native to Northeast America, found along the complex edges where
the forest shades into open prairie.

(See the same tree in its November aspect at another Photoweek feature,
Roughleaf Dogwood Fall)

Notice that with this species, in contrast to the much more widely known and popular
flowering dogwoods, the leaves appear before the white flower clusters. The rhythms
and seasonal changes of the Roughleaf Dogwood might make an excellent
signature species of the area in which it currently grows, as we carefully watch
and take note of all its varies seasonal changes and modulations, even when the
habitat of which it was formerly part largely no longer exists.

(Compare also the same Dogwood, exactly two years ago...
The leaves are somewhat more developed, and the stalk of last year's
flower cluster has already fallen off.) 


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