Chamaepericlymenum

a plant genus of the Cornaceae family. They are short semishrubs with subterranean creeping woody rootstocks and herbaceous annual stems. The leaves are simple, entire, and opposite. The flowers are small and bisexual; they form a capitate-umbellate apical inflorescence surrounded with an involucre consisting of four (very rarely six) white petaloid fronds. The fruit is a red berry-like drupe. There are three species in Europe, the Far East, and North America; all three species are found in the USSR. The species Ch. suecicum grows in the Northern European USSR and in the Far East, and the species Ch. canadense and Ch. unalaschkense grow in the Far East. The genera Chamaepericlymenum, Cornus, Thelycrania, and several others are often combined into one genus, either Chamaepericlymenum or Cornus.