Species
+

Cornus sanguinea L.

Bloodtwig dogwood, Dogwood, blood-twig dogwood, common dogwood

Climate known 74 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

Cornus sanguinea, the common dogwood or bloody dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to most of Europe and western Asia, from England and central Scotland east to the Caspian Sea. It is widely grown as an ornamental plant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cornus sanguinea”, 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
Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland +36
Wild records
733 in range· 196 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
877mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
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 (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 877 mm a year, wettest October at 83 mm, driest April at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 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 Swida sanguinea (L.) Holub; Swida sanguinea (L.) Opiz; Thelycrania sanguinea (L.) Dandy; Thelycrania sanguinea (L.) Fourr.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January 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 (629 mm of 877 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

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 877 mm a year, wettest October at 83 mm, driest April at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

877 mm a year at the habitat, 629 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 83 mm, driest April at 52 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 645 mm to 1285 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: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 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 38).

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 -23.7 °C, about 57 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.0 °C to 2.3 °C), warmest day 22.2 °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: 60 to 68% 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 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 877 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 609 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -23.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °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°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-23.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–35RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 609 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 / 3–86 / 4–910 / 8–1213 / 11–1517 / 15–2020 / 18–2422 / 20–2622 / 20–2618 / 17–2114 / 13–179 / 7–116 / 3–8
Night °C0 / -5–20 / -4–23 / -0–45 / 3–69 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 13–1614 / 13–1611 / 10–138 / 6–104 / 1–61 / -3–3
Rain mm75 / 34–9860 / 35–8368 / 44–9652 / 43–9568 / 58–12073 / 54–12080 / 50–12077 / 56–12378 / 57–11383 / 59–11881 / 55–10982 / 50–117
DLI6 / 5–1010 / 10–1618 / 16–2528 / 26–3233 / 32–3635 / 33–3834 / 32–3829 / 27–3420 / 18–2612 / 11–187 / 6–114 / 4–9
RH %67 / 62–6865 / 60–6662 / 58–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 56–6261 / 57–6263 / 59–6464 / 62–6667 / 63–6868 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 609 grid cells holding the 727 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 870:3733 (46.475, 6.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °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 609 distinct grid cells holding the 727 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 870:3733 (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 46.50_6.875, lapse-corrected -688 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 368 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.
NativeDenmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey· introduced: Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.545, 6.696 · in the densest population, 191 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 733 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 196 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 591 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 of the 733 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguineaCornus sanguinea

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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 sanguinea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Taxus baccata L.
Peter A. Thomas, Anthony Polwart (2003) · Journal of Ecology
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
Consistencies in post‐dispersal seed predation of temperate fleshy‐fruited species among seasons, years and sites
Johannes Kollmann, David A. Coomes, Steven M. White (1998) · Functional Ecology
Antimicrobial Screening of Some Turkish Medicinal Plants
Mustafa Oskay, Dilek Sarı (2007) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Activity of Some Plant Extracts Against Multi-Drug Resistant Human Pathogens
Mustafa Oskay, Dilek Oskay, Fatih Kalyoncu (2009) · Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research
Season and light affect constitutive defenses of understory shrub species against folivorous insects
Piotr Karolewski, Marian J. Giertych, Michał Żmuda, Andrzej M. Jagodziński (2013) · Acta Oecologica
Antioxidant and Pigment Composition during Autumnal Leaf Senescence in Woody Deciduous Species Differing in their Ecological Traits
José Ignacio García‐Plazaola, A. Hernández, José M. Becerril (2003) · Plant Biology
Effect of different conditions of storage on seed viability and seedling growth of six European wild fruit woody plants
Mikołaj Krzysztof Wawrzyniak, Marcin Michalak, Paweł Chmielarz (2020) · Annals of Forest Science

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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.