Cornus meyeri
Azeri dogwood
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Introduction
Azeri dogwood is a poorly known deciduous shrub of the southeastern Transcaucasus and adjacent southwestern Central Asia. Kew records it from the Transcaucasus, Iran, and Turkmenistan and accepts the species under Cornus meyeri (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2026).
The species belongs to Subgenus Thelycrania, but modern ecological, horticultural, and population-level information remains sparse. Its placement is less problematic than its biology: the name has stable homotypic combinations in Thelycrania and Swida, while detailed studies of variation and relationship to neighboring western Eurasian dogwoods are still needed.
Horticultural and Agricultural Uses
No established ornamental or agricultural use specific to Cornus meyeri is documented in the major sources reviewed here. That absence is a reason to keep the treatment concise rather than extrapolate cultivation requirements from better-known relatives.
Authenticated living material would be valuable to botanical collections, especially if accompanied by precise locality and habitat data from the Transcaucasus, Iran, or Turkmenistan.
Conservation Concerns
A species-specific IUCN assessment was not located in the sources reviewed here. The broad regional range indicates that C. meyeri is not known solely from a single locality, but occurrence data alone are insufficient to establish population trend. Better field documentation is the most defensible conservation need.
Additional Information
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Plants of the World Online (opens in a new tab) - Accepted taxon, distribution, and synonymy.
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International Plant Names Index (opens in a new tab) - Nomenclatural record search.
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World Flora Online (opens in a new tab) - Global taxonomic search.
References and Further Reading
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026) Cornus meyeri (Pojark.) Pilip.. Plants of the World Online. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:271615-1 (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)