Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry, Dwarf Dogwood)
Yesterday during a late morning walk in Pacific Spirit Regional Park, I turned a corner of Swordfern Trail and unexpectedly came across a bunch of bunchberries. A happy meeting between thriving, flowering plants and delighted human. We spent a few moments together face-to-face, sometimes with a camera lens in-between.
At home later, I wanted to learn more about Cornus canadensis so I consulted my favourite book on native flora and found a few new online resources. I especially like the description at Paghat’s garden:
This dogwood (Cornus canadensis) only grows to around eight inches tall. If you get down on your belly, a patch of it looks like the tiniest imaginable dogwood forest. The leaves are the same, the flowers are the same, everything about it is like a big dogwood, only teency.
A shade-loving Northwest native woodland groundcover, it can be a bit fragile in gardens if its needs are imperfectly met, but spreads by underground runners & by seeds thriving marvelously if it finds itself in the right situation.
Yes, fragile…and eventually dead. This is one of those native woodland plants I wanted in my balcony garden a few years ago. But C. canadensis needs moist, shady, cool conditions and prefers to grow near rotting stumps. So unsuitable for my balcony — like trying to grow a fern in the desert. Today I am more than content — I actually prefer — to appreciate their beauty in their natural habitat.
Here are three more excellent links for botanical facts:
Bunchberries of British Columbia (UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research)
Boreal Forest
Cornus canadensis (from Flora, Fauna, Earth and Sky: The Natural History of the North Woods)
Note: Bunchberries are edible so I can legitimately include them on this blog if not in my actual edible balcony garden.
————————————————————-
Join
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
GORGEOUS!! you mean you don’t have rotting stumps on your balcony!?!? lol
Beautiful photo — I particularly like the juxtaposition of the four white flower petals with the six larger green leaves. I enjoyed reading about bunchberries too — perhaps they would do well in my shady, foggy San Francisco backyard. Good Acres
The photo is absolutely gorgeous! I love the symetry of the petals and leaves. Happy GTS,
Aiyana
Thank you, Tabatha, Good Acres and Aiyana. I’ve been by your sites on this GTS to enjoy your photos and comment. Very enjoyable. I’m going outside (as in a higher number) my gardening zone and it’s so interesting to discover new plants.
Beautiful. I didn’t realize there was such a relative of the dogwood we all know and love. Great photo.
Thank you, Sara. I was thrilled to look at it up close for a few minutes.