Perennial Plant Profile

Cornus mas, cornelian cherry

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Cornus
Species mas
Common Name cornelian cherry 
Form tree 
Habit clumping
Origin Europe
Light sun
Moisture mesic
Edible Fruit

Fruit can be eaten raw, dried or used in preserves. Juicy, with a nice acid flavor.  The fully ripe fruit has a somewhat plum-like flavor and texture and is very nice eating, but the unripe fruit is rather astringent. It is rather low in pectin and so needs to be used with other fruit when making jam.  Jam can be made with low-acid fruits such as pear, apple, elderberry, plum and melon and pumpkin. At one time the fruit was kept in brine and used like olives. The fruit is a reasonable size, up to 15mm long, with a single large seed. A small amount of edible oil can be extracted from the seeds. Seeds can be roasted, ground into a powder and used as a coffee substitute\.

Wood from this tree is very hard, it is highly valued by turners. The wood is heavier than water and does not float. It is used for tools, machine parts, etc.  It is amongst the hardest woods that grow in Europe.


Can be used in hedgerows, which was used traditionally in parts of Germany.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Cornus mas