Cornus × arnoldiana
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 × arnoldiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Other taxa in genus
- Cornus alba
- Cornus alternifolia
- Cornus amomum
- 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 eydeana
- 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
Deciduous shrub to 3 m. Leaves 4–7 × 2–3 cm, chartaceous, broadly elliptic to elliptic-ovate, base narrow, upper surface dark green, lower surface glaucous green, appressed-pubescent at first, three to five secondary veins on each side of the midvein, margins entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescences cymose; bracts minute and non-petal-like. Flowers to 0.8 cm across, petals as long as sepals. Fruits subglobose, 6 mm in diameter, white or bluish at maturity with a single stone; stone irregularly subglobose, somewhat depressed, to 0.4 cm long, slightly ridged. Flowering June, fruiting sparingly in August. (Rehder in Sargent 1905).
Distribution United States Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Habitat As for its parents.
USDA Hardiness Zone 4-8
RHS Hardiness Rating H7
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
Named by Rehder in 1905, this hybrid was first noted among a planting of Cornus racemosa at the Arnold Arboretum prior to 1900 (Rehder 1940). It is more spreading than C. racemosa, with less elongated inflorescences, leaves downy beneath and bluish fruits; the one-year-old branches are purple (Rehder in Sargent 1905). Other instances are reported from Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where the parent species’ ranges overlap (Murrell & Poindexter 2015). The hybrid was introduced into cultivation in 1907 (Bean 1976), but is scarcely known in horticulture; like many of the blue-fruited species in subgen. Thelycrania it is visually unexciting. It does, however, remain in cultivation at the Arnold where a specimen accessioned in 1925 has made a 4 m tall shrub, one of the oldest in the Arboretum (accession no. 4628–3*C) (Kehne 1978).