Cornus kousa kousa dogwood

Milky Way kousa dogwood, Kingscote Gardens. Sairus Patel, 29 May 2023

An exquisite, late-flowering dogwood relatively new to campus. The four neatly pointed bracts are pure white, often fading to pink. The fruits are highly ornamental, knobby crimson globes often with sweet, lychee-like flesh. Fall foliage is a warm vermilion-red. A row lines the north side of Building 1 in the Quad; others grow on the north side of Branner Hall near Toyon. The cultivar ‘Milky Way’ is scattered along the north and west sides of the Kingscote Gardens building, where it may be compared to a single C. florida at the southwest corner.

Name derivation: Cornus – Latin for horn, from the toughness of the wood; kousa – Japanese for this species.