Shrubs, to 5 m, flowering at 1 m; rhizomes present. Stems solitary, 5–10 dm apart; bark pink, light maroon, or green, not corky, loosely verrucose; branchlets yellow-green, with scattered hairs; lenticels protruding on 2d year branches, area surrounding them suffused with purple on older branches; pith white or tan. Leaves: petiole 10–23 mm; blade suborbiculate or broadly ovate, 7–15 × 5–14 cm, base usually subcordate to broadly cuneate, rarely nearly truncate, apex abruptly acuminate, abaxial surface pale green, hairs erect, dense, tufts of erect hairs present in axils of secondary veins, adaxial surface dark green, hairs appressed or erect; secondary veins 7–9 per side, evenly spaced, tertiary veins usually prominent giving leaf a wrinkled appearance. Inflorescences flat-topped, 5–7 cm diam., peduncle 18–35 mm; branches and pedicels pink, turning red in fruit. Flowers: hypanthium constricted below sepals, appressed-hairy; sepals 0.2–0.4 mm; petals white, 2.6–3.8 mm. Drupes pale blue, globose, 5–8 mm diam.; stone globose, 4 mm diam., slightly ribbed, apex dimpled. 2n = 22.
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Shrub 1–4 m, commonly more tree-like in form than no. 3 [Cornus sericea L.], often with a single main stem from the base; twigs glabrous or nearly so, light or yellowish-green, often shaded or mottled with red; pith white; lvs ovate to rotund, mostly 7–12 cm, abruptly acuminate, broadly cuneate or usually rounded at base, minutely scaberulous-strigose above, softly and loosely white-hairy to merely strigose beneath with hairs 0.5–1 mm; lateral veins 6–8 on a side; infl flat or slightly convex; fr light blue, 6 mm; 2n=22. Moist or dry, sandy or rocky soil, typically in better-drained sites than no. 3; Que. to n. Ont. and Man., s. to N.J., Pa., n. O., n. Ind. and Io., and in the mts. to Va. May–July. (C. circinata; Svida r.)
Wooded slopes, forests, stream banks, lake shores; at elevations up to 2,000 metres. Dry woods and rocky slopes.
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