Cornus Canadensis, more commonly know as bunchberry, is a delicate jewel for a shady, damp area of the garden. Slow to get started, it spreads by shallow rhizomes, and can form large colonies. In the wild, it is often found growing on old tree stumps and at the edge of moist forests. Bunchberry flowers from late spring to midsummer. The white flowerlike four petal bracts hold the actual flowers (purplish-green clusters) in their center. The berries are red when fully mature and are eaten by birds, thus dispersing the seeds. Deer will sometimes browse the berries and foliage.

The Buck Lake Native Plant Garden has a large colony of Cornus canadensis near the south entrance to the garden, growing under vine maples and mixing with oak fern and deer fern.

Native Americans used the berries as a food source. They are mild in flavor (apple-like) with large seeds.