Species
+

Cornus mas L.

Cornejo Macho, Cornelian Cherry, Cornelian cherry dogwood, Cornelian-Cherry

Climate known 49 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cornelian cherry, also known as the European cornel, is a species of shrub or small tree in the dogwood family Cornaceae native to Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Southwestern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cornus mas”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cornus

Cornus is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods or cornels, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and some species are evergreen. Several species have small heads of inconspicuous flowers surrounded by an involucre of large, typically white petal-like bracts, while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cornus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cornaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia +17
Wild records
528 in range· 145 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
865mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 79 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 865 mm a year, wettest July at 79 mm, driest April at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cornus erythrocarpa St.-Lag.; Cornus flava Steud.; Cornus homerica Bubani; Cornus mas f. alba (Weston) Rehder; Cornus mas f. albocarpa C.K.Schneid. and 35 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (616 mm of 865 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 17.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 865 mm a year, wettest July at 79 mm, driest April at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

865 mm a year at the habitat, 616 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 79 mm, driest April at 55 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 661 mm to 1363 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -10.4 °C, the absolute minimum -23.1 °C, about 75 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.3 °C to 0.9 °C), warmest day 23.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 865 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 464 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -23.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-23.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 6–35RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 464 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–76 / 4–810 / 8–1214 / 13–1618 / 17–2121 / 19–2523 / 22–2723 / 21–2719 / 18–2314 / 13–179 / 7–115 / 3–7
Night °C-1 / -4–1-1 / -4–12 / -0–35 / 3–69 / 8–1112 / 11–1514 / 13–1814 / 13–1811 / 10–148 / 6–103 / 1–50 / -3–2
Rain mm70 / 36–9257 / 36–8167 / 46–9655 / 43–11373 / 61–13678 / 63–13179 / 54–12177 / 56–12475 / 57–13378 / 47–14177 / 50–12879 / 48–118
DLI7 / 5–1112 / 10–1720 / 16–2529 / 27–3233 / 32–3735 / 33–4035 / 32–4130 / 27–3522 / 18–2714 / 11–188 / 6–126 / 4–9
RH %66 / 60–6963 / 59–6661 / 57–6359 / 56–6159 / 57–6159 / 57–6259 / 55–6159 / 56–6262 / 58–6364 / 61–6666 / 62–6867 / 60–70

Each figure is the median across the 464 grid cells holding the 520 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 810:3769 (49.475, 8.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 464 distinct grid cells holding the 520 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 810:3769 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 49.50_8.750, lapse-corrected -141 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 95 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Baltic States, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.282, 6.377 · in the densest population, 366 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 528 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 145 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 49 km away. 171 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 528 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

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Photographs: (c) David Sandler, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Thomas Dreux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cornus mas, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Amelioration of Obesity and Glucose Intolerance in High-Fat-Fed C57BL/6 Mice by Anthocyanins and Ursolic Acid in Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas)
Jayaprakasam Bolleddula, L. Karl Olson, Robert E. Schutzki, Mei-Hui Tai (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants used in the Czech Republic
Kateřina Šimková, Zbyněk Polesný (2014) · Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius Kühn-Institut)
Water relations of drought hardy shrubs: osmotic potential and stomatal reactivity
Thomas M. Hinckley, Friedrich Duhme, A. R. HINCKLEY, Hanno Richter (1980) · Plant Cell & Environment
Characterization, Quantification, and Bioactivities of Anthocyanins in Cornus Species
Navindra P. Seeram, Robert E. Schutzki, Amitabh Chandra, Muraleedharan G. Nair (2002) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Preliminary characterisation of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) genotypes for their physico-chemical properties
Kadir Yılmaz, S ERCISLI, Yasemin Zengin, Memnune Şengül (2008) · Food Chemistry
Some nutritional, pomological and physical properties of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.)
Fikret Demır, İsmail Hakkı Kalyoncu (2003) · Journal of Food Engineering
Investigation of the Lipid-Modifying and Antiinflammatory Effects of Cornus mas L. Supplementation on Dyslipidemic Children and Adolescents
Sedigheh Asgary, Roya Kelishadi, Mahmuod Rafieian-Kopaei, Somayeh Najafi (2013) · Pediatric Cardiology
Evaluation of antioxidant activity of cornelian cherry (Cornus Mas L.)
İlhami Gülçın, Şükrü Beydemir, G. Şat, Ömer İrfan Küfrevioğlu (2005) · Acta Alimentaria
Comparative study of Cr(VI) removal by bio-waste adsorbents: equilibrium, kinetics, and thermodynamic
Şerife Parlayıcı, Erol Pehlivan (2019) · Journal of Analytical Science & Technology
Phenolic acids and flavonoids profiles of extracts from edible wild fruits and their antioxidant properties
Sina Cosmulescu, Ion Trandafir, Violeta Nour (2017) · International Journal of Food Properties

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cornus 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.