Cornus darvasica (Pojark.) Pilip.

This rare species is regarded as endemic to Tajikistan, described from a site close to the village of Kivron, Kalai-Khumb (Darvoz district) on the Panj river bordering Afghanistan (Pojarkova 1974). The species was originally believed to occur only at this location (the basis for its IUCN red listing) but has since been found to be more widespread on deep fertile soils in the mesophilous deciduous forest of the Pamir-Alai range – in Juglans regia forest (usually on northern slopes), and in warmer, wet river valleys in Platanus orientalis forest in association with Diospyros and Celtis (Nowak & Nobis 2020). Rather isolated in geographical terms, the species’ taxonomic affinity appears reasonably clear from its morphology, though it has not yet been included in any molecular studies. Cornus darvasica is evidently closely related to the other Caucasian taxa Cornus iberica and C. sanguinea subsp. australis. The species is extremely rarely encountered outside its native range, known to be in cultivation only at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK and at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, USA – though the Morton’s material is recorded as deriving from Turkmenistan (Quarryhill Botanical Garden 2026), which is puzzling in view of the accepted distribution.