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Health & Fitness

Really Look!

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.—Henry Miller
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My good friend Rinda and I went to explore Heavenly Scents Herb Farm in ...Fenton the other day, and saw this Korean Dogwood - I had never seen one before! A few quick facts:

The fruit is considered edible by many I have seen in researching this tree. Jam and wine are two examples of how the fruit was used! However, do not eat or use the outer skin!

The Korean Dogwood is also more disease resistant then our native dogwoods.

 The Korean Dogwood is a native of Japan and Korea, which like our native flowering dogwood, has four white bracts (modified leaves often incorrectly called “petals”) associated with each cluster of small greenish flowers. Korean dogwood has pointed bracts while our flowering dogwood has rounded bracts. Also, each flower cluster of Korean dogwood becomes a single spherical berry-like fruit, while each flower of our native flowering dogwood becomes a separate berry-like fruit called a drupe.

The late Smithsonian botanist, Richard Eyde, believed that Korean dogwood got its single spherical fruits from separate fruits through natural selection by macaque monkeys. These simians supposedly picked, ate, and dispersed the seeds in clustered fruits more efficiently, which over many generations favored fusion of separate fruits into a single structure.  (Courtesy of campus.albion.edu)

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