The Cornelian cherry – shindi in Georgian – is a fruit with medicinal and
decorative properties. It was grown from ancient times, according to the
International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). It is also commonly
called the European cornel.
It is native to southern Europe from France to Ukraine as well as Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The Cornelian
cherry tree (Cornus mas) can be grown
in orchards, but it is often seen in the forests of Georgia where it grows up
to 1,350 metres above sea level.
It is a medium to large deciduous tree, growing from 5-12 metres tall. The
flowers are small with four yellow petals in clusters, which flower in February
and March.
The Cornus mas has three
botanical varieties: (1) var. typica
Sanadze with cylindrical red fruits, (2) var. pyriformis Sanadze with pear-shaped red fruits, and (3) var. flava vest with yellow fruits.
The fruits are oblong red drupes about 2 centimetres long and 1.5
centimetres wide, which ripen from August to October. The ISHS indicates that
the Cornelian cherry from Georgia weighs between 1.1 to 5.6 grams, with 8.5% to
9.2% total sugar content, with an acidity from 1.7% to 2.3%, pectin from 0.9%
to 1.1%, and vitamin C from 50.5 to 128.0 mg/100 grams.
The fruit is edible, but it is very tart, tasting like a mixture between a
cranberry and a sour cherry. The high vitamin C content makes it medicinal for
the use of mitigating colds and flu.
It is also called the Cornelian cherry dogwood. William Shakespeare’s
character, Dogberry, in his play Much Ado About Nothing, is said to be based on
the fruit of the common dogwood (Cornus
sanguinea), which was thought to be inferior to other edible berries.
Dogberry is a night policeman, a comic character with an inflated ego, who
thinks he is more important than he actually is.
Maghradze, D.,
Abashidze, E., Bobokashvili, Z., Tchipashvili, R. and Maghlakelidze, E. (2009).
CORNELIAN CHERRY IN GEORGIA. Acta Hortic. 818, 65-72, DOI:
10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.818.8
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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