Japanese Cornelian Dogwood, Japanese (or Korean or Chinese) Cornel Dogwood        KOR-nus o-fis-i-NA-lis

• Deciduous multistemmed shrub or small tree, to 30⁺ ft (9m) high.  Leaves opposite, simple, ovate to elliptic, to 12 cm long, 6-7 pairs of veins, dull green above, the underside is light green with (but not always) red-brown tufts of hairs in the axils of veins.  Flowers open in early spring before leaves appear, yellow, in short stalked umbels (20 mm in diam.) enclosed in 4 bracts, pedicels twice as long as bracts.  Fruit an oblong drupe 1.5 cm long, bright cherry red.
• Sun or partial shade.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Native to Japan, China, and possibly Korea.
• Similar to C. mas (Corneliancherry Dogwood), but C. officinalis flowers earlier and has longer pedicels, ripens fruit later, has red-brown tufts of hairs in the vein axils of lowers leaves, and its exfoliating bark is more colorful.