Cornus

Cornus is a genus of about 30–60 species[Note 1] of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark.[3] Most are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and some species are evergreen. Several species have small heads of inconspicuous flowers surrounded by an involucre of large, typically white petal-like bracts, while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. The various species of dogwood are native throughout much of temperate and boreal Eurasia and North America, with China, Japan, and the southeastern United States being particularly rich in native species.

For other uses, see Cornus (disambiguation).
"Dogwood" redirects here. For other uses, see Dogwood (disambiguation).
For the northern mountain ash known as Dogberry, see Sorbus decora.

Cornus
Temporal range: Late Campanian–Holocene,
Cornus kousa var. chinensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Cornales
Family: Cornaceae
Genus: Cornus
L.
Type species
Cornus mas
Subgenera
  • Afrocrania
  • Arctocrania
  • Cornus
  • Cynoxylon
  • Discocrania
  • Kraniopsis
  • Mesomora
  • Sinocornus
  • Syncarpea
  • Yinquania
Synonyms

Chamaepericlimenum Hill

In species such as this Cornus × unalaschkensis, the tiny four-petaled flowers are clustered in a tightly packed, flattened cyme at the center of four showy white petal-like bracts.
Cornus mas
Cornus florida in spring
Cornus drummondii in flower
Mature and immature flowers of Cornus canadensis, Bonnechere Provincial Park, Ontario
Cornus canadensis fruit
Spring budding

Species include the common dogwood Cornus sanguinea of Eurasia, the widely cultivated flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) of eastern North America, the Pacific dogwood Cornus nuttallii of western North America, the Kousa dogwood Cornus kousa of eastern Asia, and two low-growing boreal species, the Canadian and Eurasian dwarf cornels (or bunchberries), Cornus canadensis and Cornus suecica respectively.

Depending on botanical interpretation, the dogwoods are variously divided into one to nine genera or subgenera; a broadly inclusive genus Cornus is accepted here.

Terminology

Cornus is the Latin word for the cornel tree, Cornus mas. The name cornel dates to the 1550s, via German from Middle Latin cornolium, ultimately from the diminutive cornuculum, of cornum, the Latin word for the cornel cherry. Cornus means "horn",[4] presumably applied to the cherry after the example of κερασός, the Greek word for "cherry", which itself is of pre-Greek origin but reminiscent of κέρας, the Greek word for "horn".

The name "dog-tree" entered the English vocabulary before 1548, becoming "dogwood" by 1614. Once the name dogwood was affixed to this kind of tree, it soon acquired a secondary name as the hound's tree, while the fruits came to be known as "dogberries" or "houndberries" (the latter a name also for the berries of black nightshade, alluding to Hecate's hounds).

The name was explained, from as early as the 16th century itself, as derived from dag "skewer",[5][6] as the wood of the tree was said to have been used to make butcher's skewers. This is uncertain, as the form *dagwood was never attested. It is also possible that the tree was named for its berry, called dogberry from at least the 1550s, where the implication could be that the quality of the berry is inferior, as it were "fit for a dog".[7]

Cherokee princess dogwood

An older name of the dogwood in English is whipple-tree, occurring in a list of trees (as whipultre) in Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales.[8] This name is cognate with the Middle Low German wipel-bom "cornel", Dutch wepe, weype "cornel" (the wh- in Chaucer is unetymological, the word would have been Middle English wipel). The tree was so named for waving its branches, c.f. Middle Dutch wepelen "totter, waver", Frisian wepeln, German wippen.[9]

The name whippletree, also whiffle-tree, now refers to an element of the traction of a horse-drawn cart linking the draw pole of the cart to the harnesses of the horses in file. In this sense it is first recorded in 1733. This mechanism was usually made from oak or ash (and not from dogwood), and it is unlikely that there is a connection to the name for whipple-tree for Cornus.[10]

Description

Dogwoods have simple, untoothed leaves with the veins curving distinctively as they approach the leaf margins. Most dogwood species have opposite leaves, while a few, such as Cornus alternifolia and C. controversa, have their leaves alternate. Dogwood flowers have four parts. In many species, the flowers are borne separately in open (but often dense) clusters, while in various other species (such as the flowering dogwood), the flowers themselves are tightly clustered, lacking showy petals, but surrounded by four to six large, typically white petal-like bracts.

The fruits of all dogwood species are drupes with one or two seeds, often brightly colorful. The drupes of species in the subgenus Cornus are edible. Many are without much flavor. Cornus kousa and Cornus mas are sold commercially as edible fruit trees. The fruits of Cornus kousa have a sweet, tropical pudding like flavor in addition to hard pits. The fruits of Cornus mas are both tart and sweet when completely ripe. They have been eaten in Eastern Europe for centuries, both as food and medicine to fight colds and flus. They are very high in vitamin C. By contrast, the fruits of species in subgenus Swida are mildly toxic to people, though readily eaten by birds.

Dogwoods are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of butterflies and moths, including the emperor moth, the engrailed, the small angle shades, and the following case-bearers of the genus Coleophora: C. ahenella, C. salicivorella (recorded on Cornus canadensis), C. albiantennaella, C. cornella and C. cornivorella, with the latter three all feeding exclusively on Cornus.

Uses

Dogwoods are widely planted horticulturally, and the dense wood of the larger-stemmed species is valued for certain specialized purposes. Cutting boards and fine turnings can be made from this fine grained and beautiful wood. Over 32 different varieties of game birds, including quail, feed on the red seeds.[11]

Horticulture

Various species of Cornus, particularly the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), are ubiquitous in American gardens and landscaping; horticulturist Donald Wyman stated, "There is a dogwood for almost every part of the U.S. except the hottest and driest areas".[12] In contrast, in Northwest Europe the lack of sharp winters and hot summers makes Cornus florida very shy of flowering.[13]

Other Cornus species are stoloniferous shrubs that grow naturally in wet habitats and along waterways. Several of these are used along highways and in naturalizing landscape plantings, especially those species with bright red or bright yellow stems, particularly conspicuous in winter, such as Cornus stolonifera.

The following cultivars, of mixed or uncertain origin, have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (confirmed 2017):[14]

  • ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’[15]
  • ‘Norman Hadden’[16]
  • ‘Ormonde’[17]
  • ‘Porlock’[18]

Fruits

The species Cornus mas is commonly cultivated in southeastern Europe for its showy, edible berries, that have the color of the carnelian gemstone. Cornelian-cherries have one seed each and are used in syrups and preserves.[19]

Wood

Dense and fine-grained, dogwood timber has a density of 0.79 and is highly prized for making loom shuttles, tool handles, roller skates and other small items that require a very hard and strong wood.[20] Though it is tough for woodworking, some artisans favor dogwood for small projects such as walking canes, arrow making, mountain dulcimers and fine inlays. Dogwood wood is an excellent substitute for persimmon wood in the heads of certain golf clubs ("woods"). Dogwood lumber is rare in that it is not readily available with any manufacturer and must be cut down by the person(s) wanting to use it.

Larger items have also been occasionally made of dogwood, such as the screw-in basket-style wine or fruit presses. The first kinds of laminated tennis rackets were also made from this wood, cut into thin strips.

Dogwood twigs were used by U.S. pioneers to brush their teeth. They would peel off the bark, bite the twig and then scrub their teeth.[21]

Traditional medicine

The bark of Cornus species is rich in tannins and has been used in traditional medicine as a substitute for quinine.[22] During the American civil war, confederate soldiers made a tea from the bark to treat pain and fevers, and used dogwood leaves in a poultice to cover wounds.[23]

The Japanese cornel, C. officinalis, is used in traditional Chinese medicine as shān zhū yú for several minor ailments.[24]

Classification

The following classification recognizes a single, inclusive genus Cornus,[25][26] with four subgroups and ten subgenera supported by molecular phylogeny.[27][28][29] Geographical ranges as native plants are given below. In addition, cultivated species occasionally persist or spread from plantings beyond their native ranges, but are rarely if ever locally invasive.

Blue- or white-fruited dogwoods

Paniculate or corymbose cymes; bracts minute, nonmodified; fruits globose or subglobose, white, blue, or black:

Cornelian cherries

Umbellate cymes; bracts modified, non-petaloid; fruits oblong, red; stone walls filled with cavities:

Big-bracted dogwoods

Capitular cymes:

  • Subgenus Discocrania. Bracts 4, modified, non-petaloid; fruits oblong, red.
  • Subgenus Cynoxylon. Bracts 4 or 6, large and petaloid, fruits oblong, red.
  • Subgenus Syncarpea. Bracts 4, large and petaloid, fruits red, fused into a compound multi-stoned berry.

Dwarf dogwoods

Minute corymbose cymes; bracts 4, petaloid; fruit globose, red; rhizomatous herb:

Incertae sedis (unplaced)

Horticultural hybrids

Cornus × rutgersensis (Hybrid: C. florida × C. kousa). Horticulturally developed.[35]

Cultural references

The inflorescence of the Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) is the official flower of the province of British Columbia. The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and its inflorescence are the state tree and the state flower respectively for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. It is also the state tree of Missouri and the state flower of North Carolina,[36] and the state memorial tree of New Jersey.[37] The term "dogwood winter", in colloquial use in the American Southeast, is sometimes used to describe a cold snap in spring, presumably because farmers believed it was not safe to plant their crops until after the dogwoods blossomed.[38]

Anne Morrow Lindbergh gives a vivid description of the dogwood tree in her poem "Dogwood".[39]

Notes
  1. 58 species according to Xiang et al. (2006)[2]
  2. Cornus sericea, treated separately here, is sometimes included in a more broadly taken concept of Cornus alba, which in that sense is also native in North America.
  3. Cornus obliqua, here recognized separately, has been included in a broader concept of C. amomum by some botanists. Canadian reports for C. amomum are apparently all based on plants here classified as C. obliqua.
  4. Cornus obliqua is sometimes included in a more broadly taken concept of C. amomum, also in the eastern U.S.
  5. Cornus sericea (including C. stolonifera) is sometimes itself included in a more broadly taken concept of the otherwise Eurasian Cornus alba.

References
  1. Atkinson, Brian A.; Stockey, Ruth A.; Rothwell, Gar W. (2016). "Cretaceous origin of dogwoods: an anatomically preserved Cornus (Cornaceae) fruit from the Campanian of Vancouver Island". PeerJ. 4: e2808. doi:10.7717/peerj.2808. PMC 5180587. PMID 28028474.
  2. Qiu-Yun (Jenny) Xiang; David T. Thomas; Wenheng Zhang; Steven R. Manchester & Zack Murrell (2006). "Species level phylogeny of the genus Cornus (Cornaceae) based on molecular and morphological evidence – implications for taxonomy and Tertiary intercontinental migration". Taxon. 55 (1): 9–30. doi:10.2307/25065525. JSTOR 25065525.
  3. "Notable Characteristics of Dogwood Trees". answers.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  4. Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521866453 (hardback), ISBN 9780521685535 (paperback). pp 121
  5. Vedel, H., & Lange, J. (1960). Trees and Bushes in Wood and Hedgerow. Metheun & Co. Ltd., London.
  6. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon (1950). Gray's Manual of Botany (8th ed.). New York: American Book Company.
  7. "the first element sometimes said to have been perhaps dag — compare dagger and dag (v.) "to pierce or stab" (1630s, perhaps 15c.). The trees have hard, white wood that was said to have been used in making butchers' skewers; another name for it was skewer-wood. This explanation is as old as the word itself in English, but the form *dagwood is not attested. Another guess is that the tree was given the name in reference to its fruit, which was called dogberry from 1550s, and dog (n.) had implications of "cheap, inferior" (i.e. "fit for a dog")." "dogwood". Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper.
  8. ook, firre, birch, asp, alder, holm, popler / wilow, elm, plane, ash, box, chasteyn, lind, laurer / mapul, thorn, beech, hasel, ew, whipultre "The Knight's Tale", verse 2065
  9. Walter William Skeat, A Student's Pastime: Being a Select Series of Articles Reprinted from "Notes and Queries", Clarendon Press, 1896, p. 252.
  10. William Shepard Walsh et al. (eds.), American Notes and Queries vol. 5 (1890) p. 118
  11. "Wildlife Dogwood Trees". Prepper Gardens. Archived from the original on 2013-11-16. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  12. Wyman's Garden Encyclopedia, s.v. "Cornus"
  13. Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and their Histories (1964) 1992, s.v. "Cornus".
  14. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 16. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  15. "RHS Plantfinder - Cornus 'Eddie's White Wonder'". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  16. "RHS Plantfinder - Cornus 'Norman Hadden'". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  17. "RHS Plantfinder - Cornus 'Ormonde'". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  18. "RHS Plantfinder - Cornus 'Porlock'". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  19. "Cornus mas - Plant Finder". www.missouribotanicalgarden.org.
  20. "Dogwood." McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.
  21. Gunn, John C. (1835). Gunn's Domestic Medicine (4th ed.). John M. Gallagher, printer. p. 523.
  22. "Dogwood or cornel." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.
  23. "Medicinal Dogwood Trees". Prepper Gardens. Archived from the original on 2013-11-16. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  24. Schafer, Peg (2011). The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm: A Cultivator's Guide to Small-scale Organic Herb Production. Chelsea Green Publishing. pp. 312 (page 150). ISBN 9781603583305.
  25. Richard H. Eyde (1987). "The case for keeping Cornus in the broad Linnaean sense". Systematic Botany. 12 (4): 505–518. doi:10.2307/2418886. JSTOR 2418886.
  26. Richard H. Eyde (1988). "Comprehending Cornus: puzzles and progress in the systematics of the dogwoods". Botanical Review. 54 (3): 233–351. doi:10.1007/bf02868985. JSTOR 4354115. S2CID 12507834.
  27. Fan, Chuanzhu; Xiang, Qiu-Yun (2001). "Phylogenetic relationships within Cornus (Cornaceae) based on 26S rDNA sequences". American Journal of Botany. 88 (6): 1131–1138. doi:10.2307/2657096. JSTOR 2657096. PMID 11410478.
  28. Zhiang, Qiu-Yun; Thomas, David T.; Zhang, Wenheng; Manchester, Steven R.; Murrell, Zack (2006). "Species level phylogeny of the genus Cornus (Cornaceae) based on molecular and morphological evidence—implications for taxonomy and Tertiary intercontinental migration". Taxon. 55 (1). Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  29. Nowicki, Marcin; Boggess, Sarah L.; Saxton, Arnold M.; Hadziabdic, Denita; Xiang, Qiu-Yun Jenny; Molnar, Thomas; Huff, Matthew L.; Staton, Margaret E.; Zhao, Yichen (2018-10-23). Heinze, Berthold (ed.). "Haplotyping of Cornus florida and C. kousa chloroplasts: Insights into species-level differences and patterns of plastic DNA variation in cultivars". PLOS ONE. 13 (10): e0205407. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1305407N. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0205407. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6198962. PMID 30352068.
  30. "Cornus oblonga - Wall". Plants For A Future. Plants For A Future. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  31. "Tropicos | Name - Cornus peruviana J.F. Macbr". www.tropicos.org. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  32. Macbride, J.F. (1959). "Cornaceae". Flora of Peru. Vol. 13 pt.5 no.1. Field Museum. pp. 44–45.
  33. Manchester, S.R.; Xiang, X-P.; Xiang, Q-Y (2010). "Fruits of Cornelian Cherries (Cornaceae: Cornus Subg. Cornus) in the Paleocene and Eocene of the Northern Hemisphere" (PDF). International Journal of Plant Sciences. 171 (8): 882–891. doi:10.1086/655771. S2CID 83524109.
  34. Manchester, S.R. (1994). "Fruits and Seeds of the Middle Eocene Nut Beds Flora, Clarno Formation, Oregon". Palaeontographica Americana. 58: 30–31.
  35. "Cornus florida × Cornus kousa". Landscape Plants: Images, identification, and information. Oregon State University. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  36. "Find Official State Flower for USA | Teleflora". www.teleflora.com.
  37. "List of State Trees | State Symbols USA". statesymbolsusa.org.
  38. "What is Dogwood Winter? | Farmers' Almanac". Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  39. Morrow, Anne (1956). Dogwood. New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 38–39.
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