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Friends of Pier Park

Friends of Pier Park is a 501(c)(3 ) non-profit that advocates for and enhances our 75-acre North Portland park

  • Amenities
    • Disc Golf
    • Playground
    • Pool
    • Skatepark
    • Tennis
  • Forest
    • Big Leaf Maple – Acer macrophyllum
    • Dogwood Tree – Cornus kousa
    • Douglas Fir – Pseudotsuga menziesi
    • Giant Sequoia – Sequoiadendron giganteum
    • Grand Fir – Abies grandis
    • Katsura tree – Cercidiphyllum japonicum
    • Mock Orange shrub – Philadelphus lewisii
    • Pacific Madrona – Arbutus menziesii
    • Pink Dawn Viburnum x Bodnantense
    • Tulip Tree – Liriodendron tulipifera
    • Vine Maple – Acer circinatum
    • Western Red Cedar – Thuja plicata
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Dogwood Tree – Cornus kousa

Dogwood tree at Pier Park
Photo by Joanie Beldin

One of the most beautiful flowered trees in the park is our dogwood, located near the circle entrance to the park, off of Bruce Street. Every year in the late spring, it blooms profusely with its large white flowers. The flowers themselves are tightly clustered, lacking showy petals, but surrounded by four to six large, typically white petal-like bracts. Bracts are actually modified or specialized leaves.

Detail of dogwood flowers
Photo by Joanie Beldin

The unique fruits are raspberry-like and they persist into winter. They are edible and are sometimes used for making wine. More than 35 species of birds will eat the high-fat, fleshy and red fruit.

Dogwood fruit
Photo by Joanie Beldin

How did the dogwood get its name? The name “dog-tree” entered the English vocabulary by 1548, and had been further transformed to “dogwood” by 1614. There are a couple of theories as to the origin of the name. One thought is that “dogwood” was derived from the Old English dagwood, from the use of the slender stems of its very hard wood for making “dags” (daggers, skewers, and arrows). Another earlier name of the dogwood in English is the whipple-tree. A whippletree is an element of the traction of a horse-drawn cart, linking the drawpole of the cart to the harnesses of the horses in file; these items still bear the name of the tree from which they are commonly carved.
While there is a native Pacific dogwood, our dogwood is of Asian origin.

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Friends of Pier Park is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to enhance the beauty, safety, and community enjoyment of Pier Park in North Portland.

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