Cornus kousa 'Satomi'
Common Name: Kousa dogwood
This beautiful dogwood is attractive year-round, with pink flowers in late spring and purplish-red leaves in the fall. The mottled gray and tan bark stands out in winter. Kousa dogwoods occur in the wild in Japan, China and Korea where they vary from having white to green to dark pink bracts that surround the tiny flowers. Our trees were originally planted as an allée leading into the Garden from the original visitor centre and are pruned into informal standards. Cornus comes from the Latin word for 'horn', probably a reference to the tree's hard wood. This wood was used to make sharp daggers in medieval times, and the name 'dogwood' may be a corruption of the Old English 'dagwood.' Some people eat the fruit when it is ripe in late summer, but it is quite bland.