Cornus officinalis
Illustration of the Asiatic Cornelian cherry (Cornus officinalis) in Siebold and Zuccarinis "Flora Japonica "
The Asian cornelian cherry (Cornus officinalis) is a shrub or small tree from the kind of dogwood. He looks similar to the native in Europe cornel (C. mas ), but comes from China, Japan and Korea. The botanical name officinalis refers to the use of the fruit as a medicine, the Chinese name is山茱萸( shan zhu yu ), the Japaneseサンシュユ(san shu yu ), the Korean 산수유 (san su yu ).
Description
About four to ten feet high is the Cornelian Asian, often in the shadow and towering single-stemmed, rather shrubby while standing, much stocky and with spreading crown. The bark is gray-brown and scrolls on thicker branches and stems into thin platelets from.
The oval, ganzrandigen leaves are about six to ten inches long, as with many other dogwoods are also six to seven lateral nerves bent beside the midrib forward. The lower leaf surface is more brightly colored, in the axils of lateral veins are conspicuous reddish-brown hairs. In the autumn the leaves turn before they fall off.
In the spring, before the leaves emerge, the fragrant flowers appear. They are united in small umbels, each umbel is framed by four inconspicuous bracts. The petals are yellow. The flowers develop until autumn oblong, about two inches wide, red or purple drupes. The fruits are eaten by many birds and mammals, which thus provide for the dissemination ( Zoochorie ).
Dissemination
The species is native to East Asia, from about the middle north-east China to Korea and Japan. It grows in the understory of forests, forest edges and thickets.
System
In the scheme, the following overview of the phylogenetic relationships of cornel:
Cornus officinalis
Cornus chinensis
Cornus eydeana
Cornus Volkensii
Use
The fruits of the Asiatic dogwood (Ch zhu yu or zao pi) are traditionally used in East Asian medicine.