Close up view of 5 red osier dogwood's white berries with a black dot in the center surrounded by green leaves that are turning red in the Fall.

We’ve got eyes for red osier dogwood’s (Cornus sericea) ghoulish, optical berry (Photo Credit: Ryan Davis).

The Alliance forest team is feeling a little cornea while writing October’s Forest for the Bats, What’s Peepin’. Red osier dogwood, (Cornus sericea), berries have a spook-takular resemblance to eyes!! So buckle-up, as we make a bit of a spectacle about this species.

Red osier dogwood is ghastly found with its mature white berries in riparian, forest and wetland habitats. The species maintains opposite, simple pinnate leaves. The underside of the leaf is ghoulishly pale compared to the upper leaf surface. The cyme cluster flowers maintain the same ghostly color that the berries do. Red osier dogwood twigs are super natural looking. The eye-catching bright red coloration maintains a white pith separating this species from other similar appearing shrub dogwoods. The mature bark is red to green in appearance with many witch-wart lenticels.

Check out red osier dogwood’s eye-mazing white berries, and red blood curdling stems (Photo Credit: Ryan Davis).

Despite the scary berry appearance, the fruit is edible. Ethnobotanical research states that many indigenous peoples enjoyed the sour berries late into the winter months as the eye-like fruit can persist on the plant. Something eye-conic about red osier dogwood berries is the biodiversity they support! It is reported that around 100 different bird species, and many mammal species consume these ghoulish berries.

If you see something blooming, leafing out, ripening, or otherwise changing in your woods, send us photos (forestsforthebay@gmail.com) to include in next month’s Forests for the Bay newsletter for more phenological fun!