5a. ssp. foemina (stiff dogwood)

C. stricta Lam.

Svida foemina (Mill.) Rydb.

Twigs mostly reddish brown when young, becoming olive green or gray with age, relatively smooth and lacking small, light, raised dots, the pith white. Leaf blades with the upper surface dark green to green, the undersurface somewhat lighter green than the upper surface but not appearing pale or whitened, lacking microscopic white papillae, smooth to the touch. Inflorescences more or less umbellate, flat-topped to shallowly convex. Fruits light blue or rarely blue-and-white mottled. 2n=22. May–June.

Uncommon in the Mississippi Lowlands Division and the adjacent southeastern portion of the Ozarks (southeastern U.S. west to Missouri and Texas). Swamps, bottomland forests, banks of streams and rivers, and acid seeps; also fencerows and ditches.

Steyermark (1963) remarked on the horticultural value of this taxon, with its bright blue fruits and brown branches. He also noted that the leaves of ssp. foemina tend to be narrower and more tapered at the base than are those of ssp. racemosa, which he treated as a separate species.