THE DOGWOOD FAMILY (Cornaceae)

Cornaceae (the dogwood family) is a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants, the systematics of which have been remarkably unsettled and controversial, and many genera have been added to it and removed from it over time. (One researcher called it a "dustbin" family.) It consists mostly of trees and shrubs, which are usually deciduous, rarely evergreen. In northern temperate areas, Cornaceae is well known from two genera: Cornus, the dogwoods, and Nyssa, the tupelos (a mainly non-european genus).

Members of this family usually have opposite or alternate simple leaves and four- or five-parted flowers carried in clusters. Inflorescences may be heads of small and inconspicuous flowers surrounded by white petal-like bracts while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. Fruits are usually in the form of fleshy berries with a single pit or stone.

(source: Wikipedia)