Cornus glabrata

Brown dogwood

Family: Cornaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Brown dogwood is a California native shrub found in the California Floristic Province, particularly in southern California, in generally moist places at elevations below 1,550 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces dull white flowers in clusters 2.5 to 4.5 centimeters wide. Growing as a small shrub or tree 1.5 to 6 meters tall, it forms clonal thickets with slender stems that range from brown to red-purple in color. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, 2 to 5 centimeters long, with 3 to 4 pairs of veins and a gray-green appearance that is paler on the underside. The fruit is white to bluish, approximately 8 to 9 millimeters long, with a smooth stone 5 to 6 millimeters wide.

Habitat: Generally moist places

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 1550 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (uncommon s CA)

California counties: Humboldt, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Siskiyou, Trinity, San Mateo, Napa, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Lake, Tuolumne, Butte, Ventura, Monterey, Shasta, Riverside, Inyo, Yolo, San Diego, Modoc, Placer, El Dorado, Alameda, Amador, Colusa, Del Norte, Marin, Contra Costa, Nevada, Tehama, Sacramento, Solano, Stanislaus, Mariposa, San Benito

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.