Botanical Characteristics
It typically has a shrub-like appearance, but with patience and care for the frequent basal shoots, the branches can be trained to grow in a more tree-like form. Otherwise, they tend to grow in a disorderly, rebellious, tangled manner. The trunk also grows twisted and knotted, with bark that flakes off in small rusty-brown scales. However, despite this somewhat ungainly appearance by our standards, here comes the surprise: a multitude of small, densely clustered flowers in a bright yellow color, arranged in sessile umbels. These flowers emit a delicate honey-like fragrance and bloom as early as late February, heralding the arrival of vegetation still sluggish and reluctant to awaken from the torpor of winter. Then, opposite the branches, the beautiful oval leaves emerge, followed by the striking dark red fruits in midsummer. These fruits are fleshy drupes, edible and pleasantly tart-sweet, best harvested when fully ripe as they tend to detach from the branch on their own.
History, Stories, and Poems
The Cornelian cherry is an important plant, starting with its fruit. As Lieutaghi writes, “the beautiful ruby cornelian cherry, currant pulp on an Olive pit, one of our best wild fruits.” It is highly valued for making unique jams, jellies, and juices. In the past, it even served as a substitute for wine, called Clinto, when the wine would begin to turn vinegary in late August during unfavorable years. The wood is also precious, extremely hard, like a horn. In fact, it was called Cornus or Cornum by Pliny, Virgil, and Columella. But Cornus, for the Romans, also referred to the wood of the javelin, a tree and a weapon, as we find in Virgil’s Aeneid (Book IX, 698): “the Italian cornel flies / through the tender air and, lodged in the stomach, / passes into the deep chest,” or in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book VIII, 408). Legend has it that Romulus also threw a cornelian cherry javelin on the Palatine Hill to mark the boundary of Rome, which then took root and bloomed, a sign of good fortune. In the past, children took pride in owning a slingshot made of cornelian cherry wood, a symbol of strength and durability. For our ancestors, cornelian cherry wood was used for the teeth of wooden rakes, known for their wear and tear, as well as for the rungs of ladders and the spokes of wagon wheels. Therefore, the cornelian cherry is a precious shrub in our park, initially appearing a bit gruff, marginal, and stubborn, but with countless qualities.
