Cornus drummondii C.A.Mey.

Cornus drummondii has a broad distribution in the eastern half of the United States as far north as Ontario, but the type was collected at the extreme south of the range in Louisiana in 1832 by Thomas Drummond, who had been engaged as a collector by a syndicate led by William Hooker (Hooker 1834; Kew 000704750).

The species was formerly treated as a variety of Cornus asperifolia, with which it shares the scabrous character of the upper leaf, distinguished from var. asperifolia by the smaller size and squatter shape of its stones, said to be spherical in var. asperifolia (Coulter & Evans 1890). However, more recent treatments have treated the two taxa as separate species, C. asperifolia being restricted to the eastern gulf and southeastern Atlantic states (e.g. Murrell & Poindexter 2015). In C. asperifolia the fruits are blue(ish), while in C. drummondii they are white(ish).

The species is more commonly seen in cultivation in the United States than in Europe, where it is most likely to be encountered as a small to medium-sized shrub (if at all). By contrast, on the rich alluvial soils of eastern Texas and Arkansas, Sargent (1902) reported that plants could reach heights in excess of 15 m, with trunk diameters of 25 cm after little more than twenty years’ growth.

Like many of the shrubby members of subgen. Thelycrania, Cornus drummondii has usually been regarded as having no particular claim to distinction, and of minimal horticultural value (Bean 1976; Krüssmann 1984), though it is capable of earning its keep as a functional plant – for example as a windbreak, or for slope stabilisation along streams (Dirr 2009). Cappiello and Shadow (2005) draw attention to its potential suitability for street planting, if trained as a tree. The introduction into cultivation of the yellow-fruited form (see below) has shown the species in a quite different light, however. Borne on red pedicels, the striking yellow berries are highly ornamental, and eye-catchingly unusual in a subgenus otherwise known only for white or blue fruits.