Cornus oblonga Wall.

The fruit is used as a source of industrial oil or medicinally as a replacement for “zao pi” (the flesh of the fruit of Cornus officinalis and C. chinensis). The bark contains essential oils and tannins and is used in folk remedies to treat arthritis and injuries.

Not very common. Found east of the Rawalpindi District to Nepal, from 1000 to 1800 m.

Trees evergreen, to 16 m tall. Bark grayish brown or blackish gray, smooth. Current year’s branches ± 4-angled, glabrous to densely pubescent; old branches with sparse rounded lenticels and semicircular leaf scars. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or lanceolate-elliptic, 6–13 × 1.6–4 cm, veins 4 or 5(or 6), raised abaxially, base cuneate, margin slightly revolute, apex acute or caudate. Paniculate cymes terminal, 6–6.5 × 6–8 cm, pubescent with white or brown trichomes or trichomes of both colors intermixed. Flowers ca. 8 mm in diam., pedicellate. Calyx teeth 2–3 mm, taller than disk. Petals oblong, ca. 4 × 1.3 mm. Stamens longer than or subequaling petals; filaments ca. 5 mm. Style 2.5–2.8 mm. Fruit black at maturity, ellipsoid, 4–6 × 6–7 mm; stones ca. 6 × 3.8 mm, inconspicuously ribbed. Fl. Sep–Jan, fr. Apr–Jun.

Tree, 6-10 m tall. Leaves opposite, decussate, 6.5-13.5 cm long, 1.5-3 cm broad, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, apex acuminate; upper surface usually glabrous but pubescent in young leaves, lower pubescent; petiole 1-2 cm long. Flowers in terminal branched cymes. Involucral bracts 2-3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate. Pedicels, peduncles, calyx and outer surface of corolla puberulous with medifixed appressed hairs. Calyx toothed, persistent. Petals c. 4 mm long. Anthers 2 mm long, filaments as long as the petals. Style c. 3 mm long, linear. Fruit 8-5 mm long and 4 mm broad, ovoid to globoid, almost glabrous.

Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

Distribution: The Himalayan region.

Fl. Per.: Sept.-Dec.

Broad-leaved evergreen and mixed broad-leaved evergreen-deciduous forests, thickets; 800–3700 m.