Cornus wardiana Rushforth & Wahlsteen

One of four species in subgen. Arctocrania (the dwarf dogwoods), this diminutive plant is easily distinguished by its leathery evergreen leaves, distinctively mucronate at the apex. The species is endemic to northern Myanmar, where it was first found by Frank Kingdon-Ward in 1937 in several locations on the mountainous forested slopes above the Nam Tamai valley. These collections (KW 12957) were lodged as herbarium vouchers – now lost – at the British Museum (Eyde & Ferguson 1989), and seeds were germinated in 1939, though the outbreak of war andthe Japanese invasion of Burma foreclosed any opportunity for the species to be more widely investigated (Kingdon-Ward 1960). It became known as ‘Kingdon-Ward’s little lost dogwood.’ This state of affairs was prolonged by the country’s subsequent political isolation, and Cornus wardiana did not become available to horticulture until its rediscovery, in a different locality, in 2016. It was not formally described and named until 2020 (Wahlsteen et al. 2020).

The striking geographical disjuncture between this southern Himalayan plant and the subarctic species that constitute the rest of the subgenus is intriguing, pointing to a relatively recent (in evolutionary terms) divergence from a common ancestral population located in what is now northeastern China during the Miocene (c. 23–5.33 Ma). It is proposed that these populations would have been sundered by the glacial episodes of the Neogene, the southern lineage of C. wardiana evolving its evergreen habit in response to the climatic conditions typical of lower latitudes (Wahlsteen et al. 2020). A similar phenomenon – a move south to the Himalaya from an ancestral boreal population – has been hypothesised in the case of other taxa with the same distribution pattern, such as Cassiope and Diapensia; indeed, Kingdon-Ward was one of the first botanists to consider the matter systematically (Kingdon-Ward 1941).

Cornus wardiana is of greatest interest for its history, but as a tiny bracteate dogwood with attractive glossy foliage it is a plant to please connoisseurs. At least four clones are grown by enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic (Far Reaches Nursery 2025), but the plant is far from common, and the parameters for successful cultivation are still imperfectly understood. Reports indicate that it is hardy in Zone 8, provided with a moist acidic substrate with perfect drainage that approximates the mossy (Sphagnum and Hylocomium) understorey in which wild plants are found. Regular abundant watering seems to be important. The performance of C. wardiana in areas with warmer continental summers has yet to be established: from a biogeographical and evolutionary perspective, it will be intriguing to see whether or not it shares the intolerance of heat for which the other members of the subgenus are notorious. In July 2022, when temperatures of almost 40°C were recorded, plants grown in semi-shade in a North Yorkshire garden showed little distress, but were kept freqently watered. They have subsequently died out, apparently because the drainage was not perfect enough in winter (J. Grimshaw pers. comm. 2025). At Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy in Washington State, United States, four clones are grown in a lath house, growing over and through rotting logs, where they have formed a sizeable patch; easily propagated by cuttings, the plants appear to need frequent division to thrive (Silas Zoeller, pers. comm. 2026).