kousa dogwood

noun

kou·​sa dogwood ˈkü-sə- 

variants or Kousa dogwood or less commonly kousa or Kousa

plural kousa dogwoods or Kousa dogwoods also kousas or Kousas

: a small, deciduous, Asian tree (Cornus kousa of the family Cornaceae) widely cultivated as an ornamental for its showy white floral bracts produced in the late spring or early summer and followed by globular, fleshy, red fruits resembling raspberries

Spring finds kousa dogwood at its most dramatically beautiful. It is then that the large, white blossoms—each up to 4 inches across—unfold in profusion from branches at the top of the tree right down to those near the ground.

—Lee Reich, Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times, 1 Oct. 2010

When kousas are young, they have an upright, vase-like shape. But mature trees … develop an even more appealing horizontal layered look.

—Christine Arpe Gang, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), 15 Sept. 2006

called also Chinese dogwood, Japanese dogwood, Korean dogwood

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined above

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