# Toughleaf Dogwood (Cornus asperifolia)

> A thicket dogwood of the southern Coastal Plain for limy soils, with rough, hairy leaves, white spring flowers and pale blue berries.

Also called southern roughleaf dogwood, eastern roughleaf dogwood, rough-leaf cornel, Swida asperifolia, Cornus microcarpa. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/toughleaf-dogwood/

![Toughleaf dogwood (Cornus asperifolia) leafy branch with oval, pointed leaves in opposite pairs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/toughleaf-dogwood-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACornus_asperifolia_369180931.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 13 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, rocky ground, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina
- Sun: Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Fast
- Traits: Wildlife value, Hedge or screen, Showy flowers, Tolerates wet soil
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Toughleaf dogwood is a thicket-forming shrub of the southeastern Coastal Plain, from North Carolina to central Florida and west to Mississippi. It grows in hammocks, on limestone and marl outcrops and at the edges of swamps, on limy or near-neutral soil rather than acid soil. Its leaves are rough with hairs above and carry curly white hairs beneath. Older books and some nursery catalogs use its botanical name for our roughleaf dogwood, a separate species of the Midwest. North Carolina lists it as endangered. Mass it as a screen or buffer at the edge of a woodland.

## Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a fast grower, like our roughleaf dogwood, nearly three feet a year. It makes a thicket shrub 6 to 13 feet tall and can flower once it is about 5 feet tall. Its gray bark splits into small plates, and its young twigs are densely hairy and tinged with maroon. The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, dark green above and pale beneath.

Small white flowers open from April into June in clusters 1 to 2 inches across. Pale blue to whitish blue berries about a quarter inch across ripen in August and September, on stalks that turn maroon.

It is a larval host for the cecropia silkmoth and the spring azure butterfly. It grows wild in hammocks, on limestone and marl outcrops and at swamp edges, most commonly in northern Florida.

## How to grow Toughleaf Dogwood

Toughleaf dogwood grows in part shade. It wants a limy or near-neutral soil, sandy or rocky, not an acid one. In the wild it grows both in well-drained woods and at swamp edges that flood briefly, and it takes short dry spells. Plant it 6 feet from a wall and set plants 6 feet apart for a screen. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the native soil back in. Sow it as its close relative roughleaf dogwood is sown. Clean the pulp off the stones and sow them outdoors in fall, a quarter to half an inch deep, and mulch the bed over winter. Some seedlings come up the next spring and the rest the spring after. Stored stones need 30 to 60 days warm and damp, then 30 to 60 days in the refrigerator, before a spring sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It spreads by underground stems into a thicket. Invasive privets threaten it in the wild, so keep them out of its planting.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Bees, wasps, flies and butterflies visit the flowers, and birds and small mammals eat the berries.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 12: Cornus asperifolia](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250101785)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Cornus asperifolia, Southern Roughleaf Dogwood](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.137776/Cornus_asperifolia)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Cornus asperifolia](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=COAS2)
- [Florida Native Plant Society: Cornus asperifolia, rough-leaf cornel](https://www.fnps.org/plant/cornus-asperifolia)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Cornus chapter, Brinkman and Vankus](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Cornus.pdf)
- [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: List of Rare Plant Species of North Carolina, 2024, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/831/open)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Cornus asperifolia](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/COAS2)
- [Atlas of Florida Plants, USF Institute for Systematic Botany: Cornus asperifolia](https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant/species/3184)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for insects: the beetles, wasps, cicadas and fireflies that everything else eats](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-insects/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for butterflies and moths: host plants first, nectar second](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-butterflies-and-moths/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Toughleaf Dogwood, add ?species=toughleaf-dogwood with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=toughleaf-dogwood&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Toughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=toughleaf-dogwood): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=toughleaf-dogwood
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Toughleaf Dogwood is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=toughleaf-dogwood
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Toughleaf Dogwood needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=toughleaf-dogwood:1
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Toughleaf Dogwood flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.