Cornus × dunbarii
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 × dunbarii ' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Dunbar Dogwood
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 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 or tree to ~6 m. Branchlets somewhat four-angled, with appressed trichomes at first, becoming purple then brown, shortly longitudinally fissured. Leaves 6–12(–16) × 2.5–6 cm, chartaceous, elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate, base cuneate, upper surface yellowish-green, with short appressed trichomes, lower surface glaucous green, pubescent with appressed or upright, straight or curved, white trichomes, sometimes pubescent along midrib, five to seven secondary veins on each side of the midvein, margins entire, apex acuminate; petiole 1–2 cm long. Inflorescences corymbose, 5–6.5 cm diameter, peduncle 3–3.5 cm long, peduncle and pedicels pubescent; bracts minute, not petal-like. Flowers with petals 0.3–0.4 cm long. Fruits subglobose, 0.5–0.6 cm diameter, blue at maturity, with one stone; stone 0.4 cm long, slightly compressed, faintly ribbed. Flowering in spring to summer, fruiting in autumn. (Rehder 1922).
Habitat In cultivation only.
USDA Hardiness Zone 7-8
RHS Hardiness Rating H5
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
One of two anomalous seedlings identified in a batch of Cornus macrophylla seed sown at the Rochester Parks Department, New York around 1910, determined by Alfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretum to be a hybrid of C. macrophylla with C. asperifolia (Rehder 1922), and named C. × dunbarii after the then Superintendent of the Rochester Parks System, John Dunbar. (The other plant was identified as a cross with C. amomum, given the name C. × horseyi.) A specimen growing at the Arnold Arboretum in 1978 had attained 6 m in height, the trunk 25 cm in diameter, densely branching with some of the branches ‘contorted and rope-like in appearance’ (Kehne 1978). It differs from C. macrophylla in the slender, paler branchlets and fewer-veined, adaxially rough leaves, and in its greater hardiness than C. macrophylla (Rehder 1922). The blue-black fruits contrast with the reddish pedicels, and the flowering season is usefully prolonged, from from late June or early July into October (Kehne 1978). Two plants propagated in the 1970s grow at the Arnold Arboretum, while two specimens at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens planted in the 1990s had reached 4 m tall in 2022 (Kevin Hobbs, Instagram post 18 July 2022).
