Leaves roll up when dead. Twigs purplish to maroon, silky, with silky hairs on branch tips as well.
Many stems join at one common point.
Berries dark blue, in umbrella-shaped clusters. Flowers white or whitish, also in umbrella-shaped clusters. Fruits August - October. Swamp dogwood has also been called Kinnikinnik by Midwestern Indian tribes. The name refers to a mixture of tobacco and bearberry leaves and swamp dogwood bark, that members of those tribes smoked.