Cornus californica

A little redstem dogwood that gives great fall color in most of California, Bigger leaves on a smaller plant. Part shade and regular water. If you want to get a headache, seek out McMinn's Illustrated Shrubs of California and look up Cornus. McMinn divided stolonifera into a number of species' and varieties'; unfortunately, the plants in the wild usually have some characteristics of two or more of these. (The hairs under the leaf, short and straight is stolonifera; long curly or bent is californica, I guess he was seeing something we don't, as every leaf seems to have a spectrum of hairs. Sounds furry.) Syn: Cornus sericea ssp. sericea. This is not the big flowering plant that lives in the California Sierra Nevada mountains. That is Cornus nuttallii, www.laspilitas.com/plants/219.htm.