Spreading deciduous shrub to about 3 m tall. New growth becoming red in the autumn and winter. Leaves mostly 5-7 cm long, ovate to elliptic, waxy-blue below and with 5-6 vein pairs. Flowers in narrow clusters; late spring to early summer. Fruit white to pale blue.
Plants may be cut back every few years to encourage the colourful shoots.
N China, Korea, Siberia.
Source: (2002). Cornaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Leaves with an irregular creamy margin, the winter stems red. Origin uncertain but available since 1900.
Siberian Dogwood, has stems dark pinkish red, leaves rounder and with a shorter tip than the type.
Leaves bronze at first, edges yellow. Originated at the Spaeth Nsy at Rixdorf, Berlin, on a stem of typical C. alba, just below a dead variegated graft.