It is a medium to large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5–12 m tall, with dark brown branches and greenish twigs.

The flowers are small (5–10 mm in diameter), with four yellow petals, produced in clusters of 10–25 together in the late winter (between February and March in the UK),[1] well before the leaves appear.

[5] The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (confirmed 2017):[6] The fruits are red berries.

It is also preserved by drying and salting, or made into fruit leather or paste, which are enjoyed as a children's delicacy or used as a sour seasoning, similar to plum, pomegranate and tamarind.

[14] Cornus mas was used from the seventh century BCE onward by Greek craftsmen to construct spears, javelins and bows, as a material far superior to any other wood.

[15] In Italy, the mazzarella, uncino or bastone, the stick carried by the butteri or mounted herdsmen of the Maremma region, is traditionally made of cornel-wood, there called crognolo or grugnale, dialect forms of Italian: corniolo.