Cornus mas, commonly known as cornel (also the Cornelian cherry, European cornel or Cornelian cherry dogwood), is a species of shrub or small tree in the dogwood family Cornaceae native to Western Europe, Southern Europe, and West Asia.
Description
It is a medium to large
deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5–12 m tall, with dark brown branches and greenish twigs. The leaves are opposite, 4–10 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with an ovate to oblong shape and an entire margin. The flowers are small (5–10 mm in diameter), with four yellow petals, produced in clusters of 10–25 together in the late winter (between February and March in the UK),
well before the leaves appear. The fruit is an oblong red
drupe 2 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter, containing a single seed.
Name
Cornus mas, "male" cornel, was named so to distinguish it from the true dogberry, the "female" cornel,
Cornus sanguinea, and so it appears in
John Gerard's
Herbal:
Cultivation
The shrub was not native to the British Isles. William Turner had only heard of the plant in 1548,
[Turner, The Names of Herbes, 1548; noted in Alice M. Coats, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1964) 1992, .s.v. "Cornus".] but by 1551 he had heard of one at Hampton Court Palace.
[Turner, A New Herball, 1551, noted in Coats.] Gerard said it was to be found in the gardens "of such as love rare and dainty plants".
[
]
The appreciation of the early acid-yellow flowers is largely a 20th-century development.[Coats (1964) 1992.]
Cultivars
The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (confirmed 2017):
-
'Aurea'
-
'Golden Glory'
-
'Variegata'
Uses
Fruit
The fruits are red berries. When ripe on the plant, they bear a resemblance to Coffea berries, and ripen in mid- to late summer. The fruit is edible and widely popular in Iran, where it is believed to have various medicinal properties and provide health benefits. It is also used in Eastern Europe, United Kingdom,
The fruit of Cornus mas (together with the fruit of C. officinalis) has a history of use in traditional Chinese medicine in which it is known as shānzhūyú () and used to retain the jing.
Flowers
The species is also grown as an ornamental plant for its late winter yellow flowers, which open earlier than those of Forsythia. While Cornus mas flowers are not as large and vibrant as those of the Forsythia, the entire plant can be used for a similar effect in the landscape.
Wood
The wood of C. mas is extremely dense and, unlike the wood of most other woody plant species, sinks in water. This density makes it valuable for crafting into tool handles or parts for machines.
Cornus mas was used from the seventh century BCE onward by Greek craftsmen to construct spears, javelins and bows, as a material far superior to any other wood.
In Italy, the mazzarella, uncino or bastone, the stick carried by the Buttero or mounted herdsmen of the Maremma region, is traditionally made of cornel-wood, there called crognolo or grugnale, dialect forms of .
Leaves
The leaves (and fruit) are used in traditional medicine in Central and Southwest Asia.
External links
