Brightly Berried Mexican Dogwood Seedlings

I posted when these Cornus florida var. urbiniana seedlings were in bloom.  Today, they caught my eye when I was out giving a tour of the East Side Interceptor sewer line to folks from the District Department of the Environment and DC Water.

These trees are just a few years old, and they are as heavily berried as a 'Winter King' hawthorn.  They had great fall color this fall, and only lost their leaves last week to reveal the berries.  They taste awful, by the way.  Bitter note after bitter note with just a hint of the melony smoothness of Cornus kousa.

Those who know dogwoods know that the four bracts surround a cluster of tiny yellow true flowers.  Typically one or two of those flowers are pollinated, and go on to become fruits.  This dogwood seems to have been very reproductively successful, with a minimum of four fruits in each cluster, with many bearing seven or eight.

Here you can see the fruits along with next springs flower buds.  It seems like such a long time before they begin to unfurl, but the days will start getting longer next week....

Merry What the Heck Mas?

A close friend bought this for me and left it on my desk.  I was audibly startled when I opened the door when I arrived that morning.  At first I thought someone had left a horribly diseased plant on my desk for diagnosis.  I must confess that its bright colors did lift my spirits on some of the gloomy days we've had lately.  I'm not a great fan of poinsettias, probably since I had to grow them prior to breeding advancements that eliminated much of the guesswork in growing a good and uniform crop.