Cornus sanguinea
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Cornus sanguinea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Common Dogwood
Synonyms
- Swida sanguinea (L.) Opiz
- Thelycrania sanguinea (L.) Fourret
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Cornus alba
- Cornus alternifolia
- Cornus amomum
- Cornus asperifolia
- Cornus australis
- Cornus baileyi
- Cornus capitata
- Cornus chinensis
- Cornus controversa
- Cornus × dunbarii
- Cornus elliptica
- Cornus florida
- Cornus glabrata
- Cornus hemsleyi
- Cornus hessei
- Cornus hongkongensis
- Cornus × horseyi
- Cornus kousa
- Cornus macrophylla
- Cornus mas
- Cornus monbeigii
- Cornus nuttallii
- Cornus occidentalis
- Cornus paucinervis
- Cornus racemosa
- Cornus rugosa
- Cornus schindleri
- Cornus sessilis
- Cornus stolonifera
- Cornus wilsoniana
Shrub or small tree to 4 m. Bark dark red to brown, slightly rough. Branchlets reddish brown, with appressed trichomes at first, later glabrous, lenticels apparent on older wood. Leaves deciduous, 4–17 × 1.5–12 cm, chartaceous, elliptic to ovate, base broadly rounded, upper surface green, lower surface glaucous green, pubescent with appressed, white trichomes, with tufts of trichomes in vein axils, three to five secondary veins on each side of the midvein, margins entire, apex acuminate; petiole to 3.8 cm long. Inflorescence cymose, 3–6 cm diameter, peduncle 2–4 cm; pedicels green, turning dark red in fruit; bracts minute, not petal-like. Flowers hermaphrodite, whitish, flat-topped, petals 0.2–0.7 cm long. Fruits subglobose to globose, 0.6–1 cm diameter, purplish black at maturity, with one stone; stone globose, 0.4–0.8 cm in diameter, slightly grooved. Flowering April to June, fruiting August to October. (Murrell 2015; Popescu et al. 2016).
Distribution Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czechia Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iran Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lebanon Lithuania North Macedonia Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Russia Serbia Slovakia Spain Sweden Syria Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom
Habitat Cool, temperate woodland, woodland edges and hedgerows.
USDA Hardiness Zone 4-8
RHS Hardiness Rating H6
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
A deciduous shrub 6 to 12 ft high, of erect habit; young shoots minutely downy, dull dark green. Leaves ovate, 11⁄2 to 3 in. long, 3⁄4 to 13⁄4 in. wide; tapered and rounded at the base, slender-pointed, furnished, especially when young, with pale scattered hairs on both surfaces, which are longer beneath than above; veins in three or four, sometimes five pairs; stalks 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers dull white, with a heavy odour, produced densely during June in downy cymes 11⁄2 to 2 in. across; sepals and flower-stalks downy; petals about 1⁄4 in. long. Fruit globose, purplish black, shining, 1⁄4 in. wide, with a bitter taste.
Native of Europe, including the south of England, where it is abundant in some localities. It is a shrub of undistinguished character, its chief value being in the fine autumnal red of its leaves. The specific name applies to this and not to the young bark, which has nothing more than an occasional dark red tinge on the exposed side. The wood is tough and hard, and is used for making butchers’ skewers and such like.
'Compressa'
Synonyms / alternative names
Cornus alba ‘Hessei’ Hort.
RHS Hardiness Rating: H5
Introduced around 1960 at the School of Horticulture in Budapest, Hungary. Better known in Europe this is a selection with small, thick dark green leaves. It has an upright, compact habit with short internodes but in time it can grow to 2.4 m tall (Cappiello & Shadow 2005).
f. viridissima (Dieck) Schelle
Young stems green, remaining so the first winter; occurs wild with the type.Variegated forms have been known since the eighteenth century, but none is of any garden value.'Midwinter Fire'
RHS Hardiness Rating: H5
Considered one of the best selections for winter interest, this is a very popular cultivar that was discovered around 1980 in a German garden by H. Venhorst, Netherlands and then named by Van den Dool Cultures BV, Boskoop, Netherlands in 1990. ‘Midwinter Fire’ is vigorous selection that suckers rapidly in contrast to ‘Winter Beauty’ which is a slow grower that does not sucker much.
The stems are yellow-green during the summer months, changing to bright orange-yellow in autumn and winter (Cappiello & Shadow 2005).
