Cornus sessilis Torr.

Cornus sessilis Torr. ; Durand, Jour. Acad. Phila. II. 3:89. 1855
Macrocarpium sessile Nakai, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 23: 38. 1909. (Nomen nudum.) Svida sessilis A. Heller, Cat. N. Am. PI. ed. 3. 273. 1914. (Nomen nudum.)
Shrubs and small trees to 4 m. high (according to Jepson); branchlets green becoming blotched with red, the pith white; leaf-blades commonly 4.5-9 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. broad, elliptic, acute or short-acuminate, cuneate at the base, glabrous above or with a few scattered trichomes, strigillose below and tomentose in the axils of the veins; veins commonly 4 on either side of the midrib, 3 arising from its basal half, impressed above; petioles 5-10 mm. long; inflorescence subtended by 2 pairs of cataphylls, these 1 cm. long, 0.5 cm. broad, lanceolate, acuminate, brown often with yellow scarious margins, strigillose dorsally, hoary at the base; pedicels 1 cm. long, whitevillose ; sepals 0.5 mm. long; petals 3 mm. long; style 1 mm. long; drupes at first whitish, passing through yellow and red to almost black, 1—1.5 cm. long, about half as thick, ellipsoid, acute at both ends.
Type locality: Deer Creek, near Nevada [City], California.
Distribution: Foothills of the Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Range, California.

Cornus sessilis is a species of dogwood known by the common names blackfruit cornel, blackfruit dogwood, and miner's dogwood. This is a shrub or small tree which is endemic to northern California, where it grows along streambanks in the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and the coastal mountain ranges. It is a tree of the redwood understory in its native range. This dogwood may approach five meters in height at maximum. It is deciduous, bearing deeply veined oval green leaves in season which turn red before falling. Its inflorescence is a cluster of tiny greenish-yellow flowers surrounded by thick, pointed bracts. The fruit is a round drupe about a centimeter wide which is white when new and gradually turns shiny black. The fruit attracts many birds.