Cornus canadensis

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit, about 6mm in diameter and borne in small clusters atop the plant, can be eaten raw or cooked. The fruits are rather dry, slightly gummy, and mealy, but carry a pleasant, mildly sweet flavour — though not ideal for eating raw in large quantities. They can be added to breakfast cereals or used in jams, pies, puddings, and similar preparations, and make an excellent addition to steamed plum puddings. The fruit is high in pectin, making it useful when making jam with low-pectin fruits. Pectin is said to protect the body against radiation.

Where to Find It

It is a cool temperate plant. It needs cool moist conditions. It can tolerate cold. It can grow in sun or shade. It can grow in sandy or clay soils. Moist acid soils are best but it will grow in limestone soils. It suits hardiness zones 2-8.

Alaska, Arctic, Asia, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mynmar, North America, Russia, Tasmania, USA,

How to Identify

A herb which keeps growing from year to year. It is deciduous and low and spreading. It grows 10-20 cm tall. The rhizomes are creeping and slender. The leaves are in rings and are 25 mm long and oval or sword shaped. The leaves turn red in autumn. There are white bracts around the flower-heads. The flowers are silvery white. The fruit are small, bright red berries.

Nutrition Score: 24/100

How to Grow

Succeeds in any soil of good or moderate fertility. Easily grown in a peaty soil in shade or partial shade. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Grows best in sandy soils. Prefers a damp soil. Not suitable for alkaline soils. A very ornamental plant, it grows well with heathers. An evergreen. A clumping mat former. Forming a dense prostrate carpet spreading indefinitely.

Propagation: Seed is best sown as soon as it is ripe, either in a cold frame or an outdoor seedbed if there is sufficient seed. The seed must be separated from the fruit flesh, which contains germination inhibitors. Stored seed should be cold stratified for 3–4 months and sown as early in the year as possible. Scarification may help, as may a period of warm stratification before the cold stratification. Germination — particularly of stored seed — can be very slow, taking 18 months or more. Prick out cold-frame seedlings into individual pots once large enough to handle and grow on through their first winter in a greenhouse, planting out in spring after the last expected frosts. Division in spring is possible but the plant can be temperamental. It is best to tease out small divisions from the edges of the clump rather than digging up the whole plant. Ensure each division has already produced some roots, then pot up in light shade in a greenhouse and do not allow to dry out. Once rooting and growing well — which may take up to 12 months — they can be planted out into permanent positions.

Medicinal Uses

The leaves and stems are analgesic, cathartic, and febrifuge. A tea made from them has been used to treat aches and pains, kidney and lung ailments, coughs, and fevers. A strong decoction has been used as an eyewash. The fruits are rich in pectin, which acts as a capillary tonic and has antioedemic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and hypotensive properties. Pectin also inhibits carcinogenesis and protects against radiation. A tea made from the roots has been used to treat infant colic. Mashed roots have been strained through a clean cloth and the liquid used as an eyewash for sore eyes and to remove foreign objects from the eyes.

Other Uses

The fruit is rich in pectin. This plant also makes a good dense ground cover in light woodland. It takes a little while to establish and needs weeding for the first few years, but once settled it can spread 60–90cm per year.

Cornus canadensis is a species of flowering plant in the dogwood family Cornaceae, native to eastern Asia and North America. Common names include Canadian dwarf cornel, Canadian bunchberry, quatre-temps, crackerberry, and creeping dogwood. It is a creeping, rhizomatous perennial growing to about 20 centimetres (8 inches) tall.

Other Information

The fruit are especially eaten by children. They are edible but have little taste.

Notes

There are about 45 Cornus species. They have health benefits.

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