Cornus suecica, the dwarf cornel or bunchberry, is a species of flowering plant in the dogwood family Cornaceae, native to cool temperate and subarctic regions of Europe and Asia, and also locally in extreme northeastern and northwestern North America.
| Cornus suecica | |
|---|---|
| |
| Growing next to lingonberry in Norway | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Cornales |
| Family: | Cornaceae |
| Genus: | Cornus |
| Subgenus: | Cornus subg. Arctocrania |
| Species: | C. suecica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Cornus suecica | |
Description edit
Dwarf cornel is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial growing to 20 cm (8 inches) tall, with few pairs of sessile cauline leaves in opposite pairs, 2–4 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 inches) long and 1–3 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 inches) broad, with 3-5 veins from the base.[2] The flowers are small, dark purple, produced in a tight umbel that is surrounded by four conspicuous white petal-like bracts 1–1.5 cm (3⁄8–5⁄8 inch) long. The fruit is a red berry.
Habitat and range edit
Cornus suecica is a plant of heaths, moorland and mountains, often growing beneath taller species such as heather (Calluna vulgaris).[3][2] Its range is nearly circumboreal, but it is absent from the continental centres of Asia and North America.[citation needed] In North America, the species is found in Alaska (U.S.) and British Columbia (Canada), and also eastern Canada (Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Quebec), as well as Greenland, but not in the intervening region.[4][1]
Where Cornus canadensis, a forest species, and Cornus suecica, a heath or bog species, grow near each other in their overlapping ranges in Alaska, Labrador, Finland and Greenland, they can hybridize by cross-pollination, producing plants with intermediate characteristics.[5]
Taxonomy edit
Cornus suecica is included in the subgenus Arctocrania.[6]
References edit
- ^ a b USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Cornus suecica". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
- ^ a b Stace, C. A. (2010). New Flora of the British Isles (Third ed.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 510. ISBN 9780521707725.
- ^ Blamey, M.; Fitter, R.; Fitter, A (2003). Wild flowers of Britain and Ireland: The Complete Guide to the British and Irish Flora. London: A & C Black. p. 168. ISBN 978-1408179505.
- ^ "BONAP distribution maps for North American species of Cornus". Archived from the original on 17 September 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
- ^ Neiland, Bonita J. 1971. The forest-bog complex of southeast Alaska. Vegetatio. 22: 1–64.
- ^ Murrell, Zack E.; Poindexter, Derick B. (2016). "Cornus subg. Arctocrania". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 12. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
External links edit
Media related to Cornus suecica at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Cornus suecica at Wikispecies- "Cornus suecica". Plants for a Future.
