Cornus elliptica Seeds | Oval-leaved Dogwood
LATIN NAME: Cornus elliptica
COMMON NAME: Oval-leaved Dogwood
Plant Profile
Cornus elliptica is an evergreen small tree from the mountains of southern China, standing fifteen to twenty metres in the wild but half that in gardens. It carries glossy, deeply veined leaves all year, and in late spring the shoot tips open flat heads of small white flowers surrounded by pale bracts.
It was long treated as a variety of the Himalayan evergreen dogwood, and older lists still offer it under that name. In its native forests it grows on humid slopes and stream edges, and in cultivation it wants the same: mild, humid air and a soil that never dries out completely. The compound fruit heads ripen over a month or more, each small drupe swelling orange then red, and a tree in full fruit is as showy as it was in flower.
Science & Biotechnology
Molecular work has confirmed it as a distinct species within the evergreen dogwood group of the genus Cornus, closer to the Himalayan C. capitata than to the deciduous dogwoods. Like its relatives it has compound fruit heads that turn red, and its showy bracts are again leaves rather than petals.
A note on the medicinal references in older descriptions: Shan Zhu Yu, the astringent tonic fruit of Chinese medicine, comes from Cornus officinalis, a deciduous shrub, not from this evergreen tree. The two share a genus and nothing of commerce. Field botanists in Yunnan record it flowering on new shoots in a second flush, a habit that blurs the neat evergreen-versus-deciduous picture older floras drew of the group.
Uses & Benefits
In gardens of the mildest districts it is a striking evergreen specimen, holding its leaves through winter and flowering in late spring when few evergreens do. Further north it needs a sheltered courtyard and makes a fine container subject for a cool conservatory.
Its wildlife value lies in the nectar of the flower heads and the late fruits, and its garden value in the clean, unblemished foliage that sets off spring flowers better than most evergreens manage. In its home mountains it grows with rhododendrons and evergreen oaks, and that association is a fair guide to its garden companions. It takes a decade to make its real presence, which is precisely why seed-raised trees are worth starting now.
Growing from Seed
Clean the pulp from the ripe compound fruits and sow fresh, or store the seed cool and moist until spring in damp sphagnum.
Give it a warm, moist stratification followed by a cold one, then sow a centimetre deep in a lime-free, humus-rich compost and keep it shaded; germination is drawn out and irregular.
The seedlings want humidity more than heat: a shaded frame with good air and evenly moist compost suits them, and they should be potted on annually until planting out. Keep the compost acid to neutral, and watch the leaf tips: scorch means hard water or sun-starved humidity.
Our Take
An evergreen dogwood for mild gardens, with winter-green leaves, late-spring flower heads and a lineage the botanists have only recently untangled.
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