Cornelian Cherry Tree Seeds | Cornelian Cherry Dogwood | (Cornus mas)

The dogwood that feeds you. The first flower of spring. The medicine chest of ancient Europe.

Cornus mas, the Cornelian Cherry, is not actually a cherry at all but a dogwood, a deciduous shrub or small tree native to southern Europe and western Asia that produces masses of tiny yellow flowers on bare stems in late winter before almost anything else in the temperate garden has stirred, followed in late summer by brilliant red, cherry-like fruits that are tart, richly flavored, and one of the oldest cultivated fruits in European history. It is one of the earliest-flowering woody plants of the season, blooming weeks before forsythia and months before most other spring flowers, and the red fruits it produces in August are eaten fresh, dried, made into jam and juice, and fermented into wine and spirits across Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus where cultivation has continued uninterrupted for over 7,000 years. If you are looking to buy Cornelian Cherry seeds or grow this ancient fruit shrub from seed, you are planting one of the most historically significant edible plants in the Old World.

• Masses of tiny yellow flowers covering bare branches in late winter, among the earliest-flowering woody plants of the season
• Brilliant red tart fruits ripening in late summer, edible fresh and excellent in preserves, juice, and wine
• One of the oldest cultivated fruits in European and Middle Eastern history, grown continuously for over 7,000 years
• Extremely cold-hardy, tolerating zone 4 winters with no damage
• Attractive exfoliating bark and reliable fall color, ornamental across all four seasons

Things you probably did not know about the Cornelian Cherry

The fruits have been found at archaeological sites dating back 7,500 years. Cornelian Cherry fruits have been recovered from Bronze Age and Neolithic archaeological sites across southeastern Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus, making it one of the most ancient fruits in the human record. The fruits were consumed by humans living in the region that became the cradle of western civilization, eaten by the same people who developed the first writing systems and founded the first cities.

It was a medicinal staple throughout ancient Greece and Rome. Cornelian Cherry was used across the ancient Mediterranean world as a treatment for diarrhea and digestive complaints, as a fever remedy, and as a general tonic. The high tannin content of the fruit and bark provides genuine astringent properties that explain its effectiveness for the digestive conditions it was most commonly used to treat. Both Hippocrates and Pliny the Elder described its medicinal applications.

The wood is the hardest of any European tree. Cornelian Cherry wood has a Janka hardness exceeding most European hardwoods including oak, ash, and hornbeam. It was the preferred material for spear shafts, arrow shafts, and tool handles throughout ancient Greece and Rome because it combined extreme hardness with a fine, straight grain that resisted splitting under impact. The Trojan Horse in Homer's Iliad is described as built from fir and Cornelian Cherry wood.

The flowers open before any insects are ready to pollinate them. Cornelian Cherry flowers in late January and February in mild years, often during periods when temperatures are still below freezing and almost no pollinating insects are active. It is primarily pollinated by the few early-emerging bees that are active on warm winter days, making it an important plant for queen bumblebees completing their winter emergence. The extremely early bloom means most fruits set on a very small percentage of the flowers.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Cornus mas
• Stratification: Required, warm stratification of 90 to 120 days followed by 60 to 90 days cold stratification
• USDA Zones: 4 to 8
• Soil: Adaptable, tolerates alkaline, dry, or clay soils, prefers well-drained, slightly alkaline to neutral conditions
• Light: Full sun to partial shade
• Height: 15 to 25 feet
• Spread: 15 to 20 feet
• Growth Rate: Slow to moderate, 1 to 1.5 feet per year

Plant it where you will see it from a window in February. When everything else is dormant and gray and the Cornelian Cherry opens its yellow flowers on bare stems in the first warm spell of late winter, the season changes. That is the whole point.