Species
+

Cornus capitata Wall.

Bentham's Dogwood, Bentham's cornel, evergreen dogwood

Climate known 84 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cornus capitata is an Asian species of dogwood known by the common names Bentham's cornel, evergreen dogwood, Himalayan flowering dogwood, and Himalayan strawberry-tree.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cornus capitata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cornus

Cornus is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods or cornels, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and some species are evergreen. Several species have small heads of inconspicuous flowers surrounded by an involucre of large, typically white petal-like bracts, while others have more open clusters of petal-bearing flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cornus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cornaceae
Described by
Wall.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet +8
Wild records
480 in range· 247 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1333mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 227 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–32DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1333 mm a year, wettest June at 227 mm, driest December at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 32 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Benthamia capitata (Wall.) Nakai; Benthamidia capitata (Wall.) H.Hara; Cynoxylon capitatum (Wall.) Nakai; Dendrobenthamia capitata (Wall.) Hutch.; Dendrobenthamiia angustata var. wuyishanensis (W.P.Fang & Y.T.Hsieh) W.P.Fang & W.K.Hu and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1016 mm of 1333 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.0 °C against a yearly mean of 16.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1333 mm a year, wettest June at 227 mm, driest December at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1333 mm a year at the habitat, 1016 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 227 mm, driest December at 25 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 904 mm to 2100 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 32 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 32 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 35 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.7 °C to 5.1 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1333 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 361 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–32RH 60–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 361 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 5–1512 / 7–1716 / 10–2121 / 15–2424 / 18–2726 / 19–3027 / 19–3327 / 19–3224 / 18–2920 / 15–2516 / 11–2012 / 7–16
Night °C2 / -5–53 / -3–77 / 1–1012 / 4–1616 / 8–2019 / 12–2321 / 13–2520 / 12–2517 / 11–2213 / 7–178 / 2–113 / -3–6
Rain mm37 / 9–8949 / 11–12475 / 20–205118 / 27–247178 / 78–276227 / 132–349202 / 143–364171 / 130–315120 / 83–21883 / 52–12848 / 16–8225 / 7–52
DLI17 / 13–2719 / 14–3222 / 17–3727 / 22–4129 / 26–3929 / 26–3532 / 26–3631 / 26–3426 / 23–2923 / 15–2720 / 14–2518 / 12–24
RH %61 / 54–6662 / 53–6662 / 51–6762 / 52–6662 / 56–6664 / 61–6964 / 60–7264 / 61–7163 / 60–6962 / 59–6761 / 58–6560 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 361 grid cells holding the 473 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1299:5569 (25.025, 98.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 361 distinct grid cells holding the 473 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:5569 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_98.750, lapse-corrected -52 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1678 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam· introduced: New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.013, 102.7 · in the densest population, 239 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 480 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 247 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 799 km away. 438 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 480 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitataCornus capitata

Photographs: (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) T R Shankar Raman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cornus capitata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

In vitro evaluation of the α-glucosidase inhibitory potential of methanolic extracts of traditionally used antidiabetic plants
Astha Bhatia, Balbir Singh, Rohit Arora, Saroj Arora (2019) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
An ellagic compound and iridoids from Cornus capitata root cultures
Norie Tanaka, Takashi Tanaka, Toshihiro Fujioka, Hiroko Fujii (2001) · Phytochemistry
Insect growth inhibitor activity of arjunolic acid isolated from Cornus capitata
Rajendra Singh Bhakuni, Yogendra N. Shukla, Arun Kumar Tripathi, Veena Prajapati (2002) · Phytotherapy Research
Pollinator attraction in Cornus capitata (Cornaceae): the relative role of visual and olfactory cues
Bo Song, Y. Niu, Jürg Stöcklin, G. Chen (2015) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Antioxidative Capacity of Extracts and Constituents in Cornus capitata Adventitious Roots
Norie Tanaka, Kazutaka Nishikawa, Kanji Ishimaru (2003) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Glucosides in Cornus capitata and C. Kousa
Søren Rosendal Jensen, Anders Kjær, Bent Nielsen (1973) · Phytochemistry
Triterpenoids from Cornus capitata☆
Rajendra Singh Bhakuni, Yogendra N. Shukla, Raghunath S. Thakur (1987) · Phytochemistry
Constituents of Cornus capitata
Rajendra Singh Bhakuni, Yogendra N. Shukla, Raghunath S. Thakur (1986) · Journal of Natural Products
Biological Activities of Three Different Medicinal Plants from Himalayan Region of Nepal
Keshab Bhattarai, Tirtha Maiya Shrestha, Ramita Bajracharya, SC Jain (1970) · Nepal Journal of Science and Technology
Presowing treatment effects on germination of Cornus capitata seeds
Subodh Airi, Ranbeer S. Rawal, Uppeandra Dhar (2005) · Seed Science and Technology
Reproductive biology of Cornus capitata Wall. ex Roxb.: a native species in East Asia
Vinod Prasad Khanduri, Arun Sukumaran, Chandra Mohan Sharma (2018) · Journal of Forestry Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cornus 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.