PL ANT OF TH E M ON TH
JIM FUNAI, LIC Cuyahoga Community College
SHELLEY FUNAI, LIC Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens Cornus officinalis, commonly called Japanese Cornel Dogwood, is native to China, Japan and Korea.
CORNUS OFFICINALIS JAPANESE CORNEL DOGWOOD
As we become better students of plants and their histories, we often come across a plant that for no real explanation doesn’t have the market that similar, often less-spectacular plants do. Our inspiration for this month’s plant comes from a recent visit to the J.C. Raulston Arboretum (the arboretum at NC State University) in Raleigh, NC.
This arboretum is a favorite of ours because of the sheer number of different species packed into one place, along with the impressive trial garden they maintain. While our focus is always woody plants, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention their giant, tree-like Dahlia imperalis. This sucker is well over 10 feet tall, and so wide that you couldn’t wrap your hand around the stem – an amazing specimen to witness. As we wandered up a path, through their Asian collection towards the Japanese Garden, we had one of those ‘knock-yoursocks-off’ moments. At first glance, we were certain we were looking at a specimen of Kousa Dogwood – multi stem, nice
26 | Official Publication of The Ohio Landscape Association
branch structure, beautiful clean green leaves, characteristic leaf vein to the tip. But wait… Kousa has really nice, camo bark. The bark on this tree seemed superior to most. And it then hit… this wasn’t a Kousa. It was the superior (in our opinion) Cornus officinalis, also known as Japanese Cornel Dogwood. Another name attributed to this great plant, Japanese (sometimes Korean) Cornelian Cherry, might make you think of a closely related plant, Cornus mas, or Cornelian Cherry. In truth, there are three Asian species of Dogwood (C. mas, C. officinalis, C. chinensis) that all fit into a sub group of “Cornelian Cherry.”