Cornus eydeana Q.Y.Xiang & Y.M.Shui — Yunnan cornelian-cherry dogwood

Introduction

Yunnan cornelian-cherry dogwood is an evergreen tree of wet limestone mountain forest in southeastern Yunnan. It was discovered in 2002 and described the following year, making it the most recently named member of the Macrocarpium clade. The tree grows about 5–12 m tall, with leathery evergreen leaves, long-pedunculate umbel-like inflorescences, and large dark purple-red drupes that become juicy at maturity (Xiang et al. 2003; Deasy et al. 2026).

Its evergreen habit initially made C. eydeana look strikingly similar to the African C. volkensii, but the original description combined morphology with molecular evidence and placed it among the Eurasian cornelian cherries. Later phylogenetic work confirmed the six-species Macrocarpium clade and retained C. eydeana with C. chinensis, C. mas, and C. officinalis in the Eurasian radiation (Xiang et al. 2005; Du et al. 2023). Tree TSAR accepts the species without infraspecific taxa or synonyms.

The species is known from wet evergreen mountain forest on limestone, generally around 1300–1800 m. Its narrow documented range and evergreen physiology make it ecologically distinct within a clade better known for deciduous temperate trees.

Horticultural and Agricultural Uses

Cornus eydeana is still essentially a botanical-collection plant rather than an established ornamental. Trees and Shrubs Online reports that by 2026 it may be represented in western cultivation by only a very small number of surviving plants, with one documented specimen maintained under protected conditions in North Carolina (Deasy et al. 2026). Early outdoor trials in Raleigh were killed around –9°C, indicating limited cold tolerance compared with C. mas or C. officinalis.

Its horticultural promise lies in its evergreen foliage, unusual cornelian-cherry architecture, and large dark fruit. Cultivation should be approached as experimental: mild climates or protected conditions, moisture-retentive soils, and careful provenance documentation are more defensible recommendations than broad hardiness claims. For botanic gardens, propagation is also an ex situ conservation action because the cultivated gene pool appears extremely small.

Conservation Concerns

Cornus eydeana has no formal IUCN assessment located in the sources reviewed here, but Kew’s Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions model classifies it as predicted threatened with confident model support (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2026). That prediction is consistent with the species’ small known range in southeastern Yunnan and its specialized wet evergreen limestone-forest habitat, although a predictive model is not equivalent to a Red List category.

Xiang et al. (2003) noted that suitable habitat extends toward Guangxi and northern Vietnam and suggested the species might occur beyond its then-known localities. Updated field surveys, population counts, and habitat mapping are therefore more important than assuming the current herbarium range is complete. The scarcity of authenticated ex situ material also makes living collections from documented wild sources unusually valuable.

Additional Information

Trees and Shrubs Online (opens in a new tab) — Detailed species account and the current state of cultivation.
Plants of the World Online (opens in a new tab) — Accepted taxon page and current extinction-risk prediction.
International Plant Names Index (opens in a new tab) — Nomenclatural record for the 2003 species name.

References and Further Reading

Deasy M, Crowley D, Aldridge J, Chişu R (2026) Cornus eydeana. Trees and Shrubs Online. https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cornus/cornus-eydeana/ (opens in a new tab)

Du Z-Y, Xiang Q-Y, Cheng J, Zhou W, Wang Q-F, Soltis DE, Soltis PS (2023) An updated phylogeny, biogeography, and PhyloCode-based classification of Cornaceae based on three sets of genomic data. American Journal of Botany 110(2): e16116. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16116 (opens in a new tab)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026) Cornus eydeana Q.Y.Xiang & Y.M.Shui. Plants of the World Online. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60426919-2 (opens in a new tab)

Xiang Q-Y, Manchester SR, Thomas DT, Zhang W, Fan C (2005) Phylogeny, biogeography, and molecular dating of cornelian cherries (Cornus, Cornaceae): Tracking Tertiary plant migration. Evolution 59(8): 1685–1700. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2005.tb01818.x (opens in a new tab)

Xiang Q-Y, Shui Y-M, Murrell ZE (2003) Cornus eydeana (Cornaceae), a new cornelian cherry from China: Notes on systematics and evolution. Systematic Botany 28(4): 757–764. https://doi.org/10.1043/02-76.1 (opens in a new tab)