Latin Name: Cornus racemosa Lam.
General Description: A tall, many branched shrub about 2.5 m tall, commonly forming compact thickets. Grows in moist soil along river banks and on sandy slopes and limestone ridges.
Leaves: Numerous, simple, opposite, and deciduous, the blades 5-10 cm long and 2-4 cm wide, dark green above, gray-green and minutely hairy below, elliptic or narrowly oval with a long tapered end.
Twigs: Slender, smooth and gray to light brown, pith slender, pale brown or white in current year’s growth.
Fruit: Round, white, berry-like fleshy fruit less than 6 mm in diameter, usually on a bright red stalk and in red-stalked clusters.
Flowers: Small, creamy-white and ill-scented, loose long clusters nearly as high as broad, flowers in late June.
Sources used: Shrubs of Ontario by James H. Soper and Margaret L. Heimburger (1994).