Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Cornales
Family: Cornaceae
Genus: Cornus
Species: C. capitata
Binomial name Cornus capitata
Synomym: Dendrobenthamia capitata, Benthamia capitata, Benthamidia capitata, Benthamia fragifera
Common name: Himalayan Dogwood, Strawberry tree, Evergreen dogwood, Himalayan strawberry,
Cornus capitata is a species of dogwood native to the low-elevation woodlands of the Himalayas in China, India, and surrounding nations and it is naturalized in parts of Australia and New Zealand. It is an evergreen tree growing to 12 meters in height and width. The leaves are gray-green and pale and fuzzy underneath, and several centimetres long. It flowers during the summer in white blooms. The infructescence is a small aggregate of several individual fruits fused into a red body 2 or 3 centimetres across. It is edible but sometimes bitter.
Cornus capitata is now classed as an environmental weed because of its rapid growth and that it produses a large number of seeds that are widely dispersed by birds. It will fiorm dense thickets by suckering from a system of underground stems.
