The Status of Flowering Dogwood in Five Long-term Forest Plots in Connecticut. S. L. Anagnostakis, Plant Pathology and Ecology, and Forestry and Horticulture, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Box 1106, New Haven 06504. J. S. Ward, Plant Pathology and Ecology, and Forestry and Horticulture, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Box 1106, New Haven 06504. Plant Dis. 80:1403-1405. Accepted for publication 16 September 1996. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-1403.

Long-term forest plots were established by The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in 1927 and were censused in 1937, 1957, 1967, 1977, and 1987. The number of native flowering dogwood trees declined slowly as the forests matured, going from a total of 661 in 1927 to a total of 603 in 1977. Between 1977 and 1987, the total number of living dogwood trees declined by 86% to 82, in marked contrast to the change in numbers of other species in the subcanopy. No "edge-effect" was found, with mortality higher in the forest than along forest edges as reported by others. The death of the dogwoods was not correlated with moisture class of the sites, or age or growth rate of the trees themselves.