Cornus eydeana
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Hugh and Judy Johnson
Credits
Martin Deasy, Dan Crowley, Jack Aldridge & Răzvan Chişu (2026)
Recommended citation
Deasy, M., Crowley, D., Aldridge, J. & Chişu, R. (2026), 'Cornus eydeana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Other taxa in genus
- Cornus alba
- Cornus alternifolia
- Cornus amomum
- Cornus × arnoldiana
- Cornus asperifolia
- Cornus bretschneideri
- Cornus californica
- Cornus canadensis
- Cornus capitata
- Cornus chinensis
- Cornus controversa
- Cornus coreana
- Cornus darvasica
- Cornus disciflora
- Cornus drummondii
- Cornus × dunbarii
- Cornus elliptica
- Cornus × elwinortonii
- Cornus excelsa
- Cornus florida
- Cornus florida Cultivars A-G
- Cornus florida Cultivars H-M
- Cornus florida Cultivars N-R
- Cornus florida Cultivars S-Z
- Cornus foemina
- Cornus glabrata
- Cornus × haddenii
- Cornus hemsleyi
- Cornus hongkongensis
- Cornus hongkongensis hybrids
- Cornus × horseyi
- Cornus iberica
- Cornus kousa
- Cornus kousa Cultivars A-D
- Cornus kousa Cultivars E-I
- Cornus kousa Cultivars J-L
- Cornus kousa Cultivars M-R
- Cornus kousa Cultivars S-Z
- Cornus macrophylla
- Cornus mas
- Cornus mas Cultivars A-G
- Cornus mas Cultivars H-M
- Cornus mas Cultivars N-R
- Cornus mas Cultivars S-Z
- Cornus 'Mountain Moon'
- Cornus multinervosa
- Cornus nuttallii
- Cornus obliqua
- Cornus oblonga
- Cornus officinalis
- Cornus poliophylla
- Cornus 'Pumila'
- Cornus quinquenervis
- Cornus racemosa
- Cornus rugosa
- Cornus × rutgersensis
- Cornus sanguinea
- Cornus scabrida
- Cornus sericea
- Cornus sessilis
- Cornus × slavinii
- Cornus suecica
- Cornus sunhangii
- Cornus × transamericana
- Cornus unalaschkensis
- Cornus walteri
- Cornus wardiana
- Cornus wilsoniana
Evergreen tree 5–12 m tall, trunk 15–20 cm dbh; bark grey-black to tan, scaly; leaves 3.2–6 × 7–15 cm, broadly elliptic to ovate-elliptic, young leaves soft-leathery, light green, shiny, old leaves thick-papery or leathery, dull green above and grey below, pubescent, the brown or white hairs appressed and two-armed; three or four secondary veins either side of the central vein, the transverse tertiary veins conspicuous; base cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate, petiole 5–10 mm, pubescent becoming glabrate. Inflorescence terminal, an umbellate cyme borne on long peduncle 18–37 mm, containing 50–70 flowers, subtended by two pairs of deciduous densely pubescent bracts with acuminate apices; calyx lobes narrowly triangular, pubescent, petals oblong-lanceolate, yellowish. Infructescence an umbel of 2–10 drupes, pedicels 8–12 mm, the fruit oblong-globose, 13–15 × 24–29 mm, green, hard and dry when unripe, dark purple-red and juicy at maturity, containing a single stone. (Xiang, Shui & Murrell 2003).
Distribution China Yunnan
Habitat Wet evergreen mountain forest on limestone substrates at 1300–1800 m asl.
Cornus eydeana is an evergreen species discovered in southeast Yunnan in 2002, practically unknown in cultivation and perhaps currently (2026) only represented by a single specimen in the eastern United States. It belongs with the red-fruited cornelian cherries in subgenus Cornus, together with C. mas and C. officinalis, with which it shares the umbellate inflorescence, though in C. eydeana the peduncle is greatly extended. The leathery, few-veined, acuminate leaves are strikingly similar to those found in several other evergreen mountain Cornus: the other evergreen cornelian cherry, the African C. volkensii, the more distantly related C. oligophlebia and C. hongkongensis subsp. tonkinensis (which both co-occur with C. eydeana), and the Central American species C. excelsa. This common leaf morphology may reflect convergent evolution, as an environmental adaptation, since it occurs as an isolated character in four separate Cornus clades (Xiang, Shui & Murrell 2003).
Plants in cultivation were raised from seed collected near the type locality by Qiu-Yun (Jenny) Xiang, at around the same time the species was discovered, in 2002 (Q-Y. (J.) Xiang, pers. comm. 2023). Seedlings were subsequently distributed among her colleagues, and to several gardens and collections in North Carolina. The species has not proved to be as reliably hardy as had been hoped (Weathington 2009). Plants grown in the open at J. C. Raulston Arboretum and Juniper Level Botanic Garden in Raleigh all succumbed at – 9°C (M. Weathington, pers. comm. 2023). However, one plant grown in a large container and overwintered under frost-free glass at NCSU’s Mountain Horticultural Crop Research Station in the southern Appalachians has fared better, flowering in late October to November and remaining evergreen under these conditions. There are plans to propagate it with a view to outdoor trials in other locations with a suitable climate (J. Nix, pers. comm. 2025).
Although known at present only from Yunnan, Xiang, Shui and Murrell (2003) note the possibility that Cornus eydeana might be present in the neighbouring regions of Guangxi and northern Vietnam, where similar vegetation occurs. The species was named in honour of the renowned taxonomist Richard H. Eyde (1928–1990), a specialist on Cornus whose formidably erudite and witty articles (Eyde 1985, 1987, 1988) remain indispensable to an understanding of the genus.
