四照花 si zhao hua

Cornus kousa var. chinensis Osborn, Gard. Chron., ser. 3, 72: 310. 1922; Benthamidia japonica (Siebold & Zuccarini) H. Hara var. chinensis (Osborn) H. Hara; B. sinensis (Nakai) T. Yamazaki; C. kousa var. leucotricha (W. P. Fang & Y. T. Hsieh) Q. Y. Xiang; Cynoxylon pseudokousa Pojarkova; C. sinense Nakai; Dendrobenthamia japonica (Siebold & Zuccarini) W. P. Fang var. chinensis (Osborn) W. P. Fang; D. japonica var. huaxiensis W. P. Fang & W. K. Hu; D. japonica var. leucotricha W. P. Fang & Y. T. Hsieh.

Trees or shrubs, deciduous, 3–10 m tall. Bark grayish brown, smooth; current year’s branches pubescent with soft white trichomes; second year branches reddish brown, glabrescent or subglabrous, with rounded lenticels. Winter buds mixed, globose, completely covered by 2 pairs of scales. Leaf blade adaxially green, abaxially powder green, narrowly to broadly elliptic, narrowly to broadly ovate, 4–11 × 3.6–5 cm, papery to thickly papery, abaxially often densely papillate and pubescent with appressed trichomes, rarely with long soft white trichomes, trichomes gradually deciduous, axils of veins often with a cluster of white or brown soft long trichomes, veins 4 or 5 pairs, base abruptly acute to rounded, apex abruptly acuminate. Bracts white or rarely pink, narrowly to broadly elliptic to narrowly to broadly ovate, 3–6 cm, glabrous or minutely pubescent, apex acuminate. Capitate cymes globose, 0.7–1 cm in diam., 20–40-flowered; peduncle 3.5–7.5 cm; often with a conspicuously thickened ring at base. Calyx with a ring of short brown or white trichomes; tube ca. 1 mm; lobes pubescent on both surfaces, apex truncate to rounded. Petals greenish or yellowish. Anthers yellow or sometimes dark blue or blackish. Style cylindrical, ca. 1.5 mm, densely pubescent with thick white trichomes. Compound fruit red at maturity, globose, 1–1.5 cm in diam., minutely white strigillose; peduncle 6–11 cm. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Sep–Oct.

Mixed woods, valleys, shaded slopes, streamsides, roadsides; 400–2200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, ?Yunnan, Zhejiang.

The edible, sweet fruit is sometimes used for making wine.

Cornus kousa subsp. kousa, from Japan and Korea, has thinly papery leaves with the abaxial surface light green, the base of the peduncle not conspicuously expanded, and smooth branches with lines (cracks) of elongate lenticels; in subsp. chinensis the leaves are thickly papery with the abaxial surface powder green and sometimes with curly white trichomes, the base of the peduncle is conspicuously expanded into a ring, and the branches often have dense, rounded lenticels.