Cornus glabrata Benth.

Native to Oregon and California, Cornus glabrata is distinguished by its small narrow leaves, tapered at both ends and shining green on both sides, brown twigs, and blue or white fruits. It is closely related to two other blue-fruited dogwoods from the opposite (eastern) side of the Rockies, C. amomum and C. obliqua. In the molecular-based phylogeny recovered by Du et al. (2023), Cornus glabrata is placed as sister species to C. obliqua.

The shrub is rarely encountered in cultivation, at least in outside North America. Bean described it as ‘a neat-habited shrub of cheerful aspect’, though from an American perspective the habit is found to be unattractively lax and scraggly (Cappiello & Shadow 2005). Murrell and Poindexter (2015) note the existence of two distinct habits: in moist conditions, lax stems may trail vine-like, while erect stems with thicker leaves may be produced in drier situations; sometimes both habits are produced in the same plant.

Cornus glabrata was introduced to Germany in 1889 by Zöschen Baumschule, from seed collected in Lytton, British Columbia (Dieck 1889). The species was grown at Darmstadt Botanical Garden, possibly from the same source, these plants fruiting in 1893 and the seed listed in the Darmstadt Index Seminum of 1894 (Dippel 1893; Botanischer Garten Darmstadt 1894) – this offering is probably the source for Bean’s date of introduction of 1894 (Bean 1976). Späth was offering the plant by 1897, and plants were available in the nursery trade in North America by at least 1908 (Moon 1908).