Cornus

Cornus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Cornales Family: Cornaceae Genus: Cornus
Species
Table of contents 1 Subgenus Mesomora 2 Subgenus Svida 3 Subgenus Chamaepericlymenum 4 Subgenus Cynoxylon 5 Mesomora 6 Svida (Swida) 7 Chamaepericlymenum 8 Cynoxylon Subgenus Mesomora Cornus alternifolia - pagodatree or alternate-leaf dogwood Cornus controversa - giant dogwood Subgenus Svida Cornus alba - Tatarian dogwood Cornus austrosinensis Cornus amomum - silky dogwood Cornus asperifolia - rough-leaf dogwood Cornus bretschneider Cornus coreana Cornus drummondii - rough-leaf dogwood Cornus foemina - swamp dogwood Cornus hemsleyi Cornus koehneana Cornus macrophylla - bigleaf dogwood Cornus obliqua - pale dogwood Cornus oligophlebia Cornus papillosa Cornus parviflora Cornus quinquenervis Cornus racemosa - northern swamp dogwood Cornus rugosa - round-leaf dogwood Cornus sanguinea - bloodtwig dogwood Cornus schindleri Cornus sericea - redtwig dogwood Cornus stricta - southern swamp dogwood Cornus ulotricha Cornus walteri - Walter dogwood Cornus wilsoniana Subgenus Chamaepericlymenum Cornus canadensis - bunchberry Cornus glabrata Cornus mas - Cornelian cherry Cornus sessilis Cornus suecica - Swedish cornel Cornus unalaschkensis Subgenus Cynoxylon   Cornus angustata   Cornus capitata   Cornus chinensis - Chinese dogwood   Cornus florida - flowering dogwood   Cornus hongkongensis   Cornus kousa - Kousa dogwood   Cornus multinervosa   Cornus nuttallii - Pacific dogwood   Cornus officinalis - Japanese cornel

The genus Cornus is also known as the dogwoods[?], with over fifty species. Most species have opposite leaves. The fruit of all species is a drupe with one or two seeds. Flowers have four parts.

Cornus has been divided into various subgenera, with numbers ranging from four to nine or more. Four subgenera are enumerated here:

• With semi-showy flower clusters, usually white or whitish, in cymes, fruit blue to white:

• Mesomora, with alternate leaves
• Svida, with opposite leaves

• With inconspicuous flower clusters, usually greenish, surrounded by showy petal-like bracts, fruit usually red:

• Chamaeperi- clymenum, subshrubs growing from woody stolons
• Cynoxylon, shrubs and trees, including the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida

Many species in the Svida group are stoloniferous shrubs, growing along waterways. Several of these are used for naturalizing landscape plantings, especially the species with bright red or bright yellow stems.

Most of the species in the Cynoxylon group are small trees used as ornamentals. One, the Cornelian cherry, has edible fruit.

Eastern North American species of Cornus:

Mesomora

• Cornus alternifolia -- pagoda dogwood or alternate-leaved dogwood, most of eastern U.S. east of Great Plains, and extreme southeast Canada

Svida (Swida)

• Cornus amomum -- most of U.S. east of Great Plains except for deep south, and extreme southeast Canada
• Cornus drummondii -- rough-leaf dogwood, U.S. between the Appalachian belt and Great Plains, and southern Ontario
• Cornus racemosa -- northern swamp dogwood, extreme southeast Canada and northeast U.S.
• Cornus rugosa -- round-leaf dogwood, southeast Canada and extreme northeast U.S.
• Cornus stricta -- southern swamp dogwood, southeast U.S.

Chamaepericlymenum

• Cornus canadensis -- bunchberry, throughout Canada, into eastern Asia, and extreme northeast U.S.
• Cornus suecica -- Swedish cornel, eastern Canada

Cynoxylon

• Cornus florida -- U.S. east of the Great Plains into southern Ontario

Flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, in bloom

For a treatment of Asian dogwoods, see: http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/china/mss/volume14/Cornaceae-AGH_coauthoring.htm

---

Cornus[?] is also the name of a commune in the Aveyron département, in France