Large-leaf dogwood is a tree-sized dogwood native across much of Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan. In summer it carries broad, flat clusters of small creamy-white flowers, followed by blue-black berries. It doesn't grow wild in the US but was first brought to American gardens around 1880, and it's also called bigleaf dogwood.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A deciduous tree that can reach about 80 ft (25 m) in the wild; in gardens it often branches from the base unless trained early to a single trunk.
- Leaves
- Opposite, egg-shaped to oval, 2½–6 in (6–16 cm) long, with 5–8 pairs of curved veins. Green above and pale gray-green below, with good fall color.
- Flowers
- Tiny yellowish-white flowers in rounded, flat-topped clusters 3–5 in (8–12 cm) across, without the big petal-like bracts of flowering dogwood.
- Fruit
- Small round that ripen purplish to bluish-black in late summer and fall.
Look-alikes
giant dogwoodCornus controversa
Giant dogwood has alternate leaves (one per node), while large-leaf dogwood has opposite leaves in pairs.
Why they get mixed upBoth are Asian trees with flat clusters of white flowers, and the names were mixed up in early plantings.
Where it lives
- Range
- Native from Afghanistan and the western Himalayas through China, Taiwan, and Korea to Japan and Sakhalin. Not found in the wild in the US.
- Preferred conditions
- In its native range it grows in forests and along streams and slopes, from sea level up to about 11,800 ft (3,600 m).
Growing it
- Care
- Hardy in USDA zones 7–8 and tolerant of many soils. It reached the US around 1880, probably from Japan.
Name and classification
- About the name
- In North America and continental Europe the name Cornus macrophylla was long used by mistake for giant dogwood (Cornus controversa), so older garden labels may be wrong. A more hairy Himalayan form is treated as var. stracheyi.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
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