Description

Leaves: Opposite; simple; deciduous; similar to flowering dogwood, but pubescent on both sides and somewhat smaller.

Twigs/buds: Twigs usually red on top and green on bottom; slender, angled when young; branches softly hairy.  Flower buds yellow-green to brown, ball-like, stalked, blunt-tipped, with flattened hairs; vegetative buds greenish, with silky, flattened hairs.

Flowers/fruit: Flowers perfect; yellow; small, but in 3/4" bunches; appear very early, before leaves.  Fruit a cherry-red, oblong drupe; 1/2" in diameter; matures in July; edible and used for jams and jellies.

Bark: Gray-brown to brown, layered, flaky, and scaly; attractive.

Wood: Hard, hardy, durable, flexible; has been used to make tool handles, ladder rungs, wheel spokes, and javelin shafts.

General: Native to the western Asia and central and southern Europe.  Better adapted to high soil pH and poor conditions than most other non-shrub dogwoods.  Intermediate shade tolerance.

Landscape Use: A small to medium sized tree rarely planted in Utah.  I saw a planting of these growing at an NRCS Plant Materials Center near Manhattan, Kansas.  They looked good, were growing well, and had attractive, edible fruit.  This is doing well on the USU campus in Logan. Zones 4-8.

Cultivars: 'Alba', 'Aurea', 'Aurea-Elegantissima', 'Elegant', 'Flava', 'Fructu Violaceo', 'Golden Glory', 'Macrocarpa', 'Nana', 'Pioneer', 'Redstone', 'Spring Glow', 'Variegata'. 

Characteristics