PlantFiles: Evergreen Dogwood, Headed-flowered Dogwood, Bentham's Cornel, Himalayan Strawberry Tree
Cornus capitata

This is a fine evergreen tree with softly leather, dull green leaves. It often develops a broad 'mushroom head' when mature and can take on a tiered look especially when in flower. In the UK it tends to flower in June and carries masses of creamy yellow bracted flowers that age to deep pink. Further south flowering take commence in April or May. The flowers later give rise to glistening red, strawberry-like fruits that look delicious, but taste very unpleasant and astringent. The fruits remain on the tree until winter storms, but here at least the birds leave them alone.

It appears to be reasonably wind-tolerant and copes with strong north-easterly winds that blow in during winter, however it does need support as a young tree. Seed grown plants take about 5 years to commence flowering, but after that each year becomes more and more spectacular. One small minus point is that like a lot of everrgreen trees, oldest leaves turn yellow and fall during early summer. This Cornus needs plenty of water to grow well and will not tolerate prolonged freezing weather. Where it grows well, expect a seedling to reach about 16ft in 5 years and carry on to 30ft. eventually.