‘It is a strong tree bearing a fruit like ye Oliue, sommewhat long, green at first but being ripe it growes yellow or the colour of [red] wax, edible, binding, good for ye flux of ye belly and ye dysenteries, whether it be mixed with Sapa, or eaten with meate… They are also preserved in a pickle as oliues are.” So wrote Dioscorides in his book of herbs, de Materia Medica.

Born in Anazarba (near modern Tarsus), then within the Roman Empire, Dioscorides probably lived between AD40 and 90, in the time of the Roman Emperors Nero and Vespasian. A learned physician, he practised medicine as an army doctor, seeing service with the Roman legions in Greece, Italy, Asia Minor and Provence. His military years provided opportunities for studying diseases, collecting and identifying medicinal plants and discovering other healing methods. His knowledge of plants made him one of the most prominent figures at the dawn of modern botany. In de Materia Medica, he compiled numerous remedies employing some 600 plants and derivatives. One was Cornus mascula, or krania as it was called in the ancient Greek of 2,000 years ago.

Today a popular garden plant, the tree is known in Europe as cornel or cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), and in America as dogwood. In fact, “cherry” is a misnomer. A member of the large Cornaceae family, rather than the Prunus genus, its hardiness, longevity and early blooms make it an attractive plant for gardeners and a common sight in garden centres. The lemon-yellow flowers, clustered in umbels, begin to show in early spring before any other blossom is in sight, and develop slowly to olive-shaped glossy berries in late autumn.

This small, deciduous tree with coral-red berries is lovely to look at, but in lands such as Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Crimea and the Balkans, to which it is native, it is also popular for its slightly tart fruit, not dissimilar to sour cherries. It has been prized, and possibly cultivated, since time immemorial, as Dioscorides confirms. From its habitat in Eurasia it must have spread farther into Europe. As a plant with pharmaceutical benefits and valuable timber, for centuries it would have been commercially important, hence its naturalisation in modern times in the northern parts of Europe and America. We know that it was introduced into cultivation in monastic gardens during the Middle Ages. The herbalist John Gerard describes it in 1597: “There be sundry trees of the cornel in gardens of such as love rare and dainty plants, whereof I have a tree or two in my garden.”

The Turkish name for cornelian cherry is kızılcık, meaning deep red, from the bright vermilion colour of the ripe fruit. But in Anatolia the name can vary locally. In the hinterland of the Black Sea – in Şebinkarahisar, Kastamonu and Bolu – it is called giren, güren, küren or kiren, derived surely from Dioscorides’ krania. In the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey it is ergen, possibly from erken (early) because of its early awakening. In Crimea it is known as “Tartar cherry” and in Russia kizil.

The tart-sweet flavour of the cornelian cherry is enjoyed fresh in Turkey when the berries are ripe. These are also processed to make refreshing sherbets, sorbets and compotes, and are preserved for winter as jams, sweet pastes, fruit leathers (pestil), syrups, liquors, savoury sauces; they are also salted and dried as a snack, and even as powdered soups. Mountains and hillsides all around the Turkish coast, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, are covered with natural orchards, especially prolific on the borders of oak or hornbeam forests. There are also cultivated forms with larger berries or drupes. Some 2 million cultivated trees in Anatolia are thought to produce 15,000 tons of fruit for export a year, though locals who continue to collect from the wild claim their fruit is tastier and sweeter.

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