Cornus canadensis-Bunch berry

Description

 I have always questioned how this creeping herbaceous perennial of woodlands could possibly be in the same genus as red osier and flowering dogwoods. Well, now it has its own genus, Chamaepericlymenum, quite a mouthful. I’m going to eat crow and keep referring to it as Cornus, the genus that most everybody is familiar with.

   Like its cousin, flowering dogwood, those big white toothy-looking structures that we assume are flowers, aren’t flower petals, but bracts. The actual flowers are much smaller and less showier if you look more closely. Never-the-less, this is a primo ground cover for the right place-mostly shaded, has adequate moisture retentive organic matter, acidic, woodland or ecotonal habitat. I see them growing into the woods, on the edges of power line right-of-ways, and sometimes in near full sun if the ground is continuously moist. Previous season’s leaves tend to die back during the winter. Verdant new leaves poke up through the ground in late April-early-May.  Flowers in June, followed by bunches of bright red berries in late July.

 1 quart size, $18.00 (Conventionally grown.)