Red-osier Dogwood - Cornus sericea
Favourite Photos
Species Description
Widely planted and naturalised throughout the UK. It is heart-breaking to see this species planted in so call 'mixed native hedges'.
Useful Links:
Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora
Stace 4:
Cornus sericea L. (C. stolonifera Michx., Thelycrania sericea (L.) Dandy, Swida sericea (L.) Holub) - Red-osier Dogwood.
Shrub to 3m; bark of first year twigs dark red or greenish-yellow in winter; leaves ovate to elliptic, 4-10cm, tapering-acuminate, with hairs on abaxial surface all with 2 more or less equal arms both appressed to leaf surface; fruit white to cream, 4-7mm, often not ripening; (2n=22). Neophyte-naturalised; much grown in parks and on roadsides, frequently naturalised by suckers; scattered in most of lowland British Islands; North America.
Key:
- Shrub; inflorescence not subtended by 4 long white bracts
- Inflorescence appearing after leaves, without petal-like bracts at base; petals whitish
- Fruit white to cream or pale blue; many larger leaves with 6(-7) pairs of lateral veins; petals 2-4mm
- Stone flattened-subglobose, about as long as wide, rounded at base; leaves tapering-acuminate