Cornus nuttallii Audubon ex Torr. & A.Gray
Nuttall's dogwood, Pacific dogwood, mountain dogwood, western flowering dogwood
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Cornus nuttallii, the Pacific dogwood, western dogwood, or mountain dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to western North America. The tree's name used by Hul'q'umi'num'-speaking nations is Kwi’txulhp.
Text from Wikipedia, “Cornus nuttallii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Cornus
Cornus is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods or cornels, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and some species are evergreen. Several species have small heads of inconspicuous flowers surrounded by an involucre of large, typically white petal-like bracts, while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Cornus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Benthamia nuttallii (Audubon ex Torr. & A.Gray) Nakai; Benthamidia nuttallii (Audubon ex Torr. & A.Gray) Moldenke; Cornus nuttallii Audubon; Cynoxylon nuttallii (Audubon ex Torr. & A.Gray) Shafer.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1101 mm of 1517 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 4.8 °C against a yearly mean of 10.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1517 mm a year, wettest December at 259 mm, driest July at 15 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1517 mm a year at the habitat, 1101 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 259 mm, driest July at 15 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1029 mm to 2316 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -5.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.4 °C, the absolute minimum -17.4 °C, about 57 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.0 °C in December (across the envelope cells -4.4 °C to 2.9 °C), warmest day 26.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 7 / 3–11 | 8 / 5–12 | 11 / 7–14 | 14 / 10–17 | 18 / 15–22 | 22 / 18–27 | 26 / 21–31 | 26 / 21–31 | 23 / 19–27 | 17 / 13–21 | 10 / 6–14 | 6 / 2–10 |
| Night °C | 0 / -4–3 | 1 / -4–3 | 2 / -2–4 | 4 / -1–6 | 7 / 3–9 | 10 / 7–12 | 13 / 10–15 | 13 / 10–15 | 11 / 8–13 | 7 / 4–10 | 3 / -1–6 | 0 / -4–3 |
| Rain mm | 243 / 154–359 | 196 / 114–294 | 181 / 108–267 | 113 / 68–167 | 74 / 46–120 | 45 / 18–92 | 15 / 3–47 | 18 / 4–53 | 41 / 17–88 | 110 / 65–219 | 222 / 145–368 | 259 / 166–397 |
| DLI | 10 / 6–16 | 16 / 12–22 | 24 / 19–32 | 33 / 28–41 | 39 / 34–48 | 43 / 37–53 | 48 / 40–53 | 42 / 35–48 | 32 / 26–39 | 20 / 14–28 | 11 / 7–19 | 8 / 5–14 |
| RH % | 64 / 55–68 | 62 / 57–65 | 61 / 57–64 | 60 / 54–62 | 58 / 51–61 | 57 / 47–61 | 54 / 43–60 | 54 / 43–60 | 55 / 45–61 | 59 / 49–65 | 64 / 53–69 | 64 / 55–69 |
Each figure is the median across the 932 grid cells holding the 1678 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 910:1129 (44.475, -123.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 932 distinct grid cells holding the 1678 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 910:1129 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_-123.750, lapse-corrected +354 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 565 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Alan Rockefeller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Casey H. Richart, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Barbara Banfield, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) J Brew, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Cornus nuttallii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Darlingtonia californica California pitcherplant
Iris tenax Oregon flag
Camassia leichtlinii Leichtlin's camas
Physocarpus capitatus Pacific ninebark
Dicentra formosa Bleeding-Heart
Acer macrophyllum Bigleaf MapleOther Cornus 12 in the reference
Cornus alba Red-bark dogwood
Cornus alternifolia Alternate-Leaf Dogwood
Cornus amomum Silky Dogwood
Cornus capitata Bentham's Dogwood
Cornus drummondii Drummond's dogwood
Cornus florida American Boxwood
Cornus kousa Chinese Dogwood
Cornus mas Cornejo Macho
Cornus officinalis Asiatic dogwood
Cornus racemosa gray dogwood
Cornus sanguinea Bloodtwig dogwood
Cornus sericea American dogwood History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








