Abstract: Cornus subgen. Syncarpea (Nakai) Q. Y. Xiang as defined here includes 4 species, 12 subspecies, 3 varieties, and is mainly distributed in East Asia except a few subspecies extending to South Vietnam and Laos. The taxonomic treatment of subgen.Syncarpea is much controversial owing to the diversity of evaluation of characters. A reasonable system reflecting the infra-subgeneric relationships is still lacking. During the researches,the present author found that the species of the subgenus have various habits and buds, which has not been noticed by the other authors. Proposed here is a new system which divides the subgenus into two sections based on leaf duration and if the flower bud is covered or naked. The species of sect. Syncarpea with evergreen leaves and naked flower buds are mainly distributed in the regions south of 30°N, and those of sect.Japonicae with deciduous leaves and covered mixed buds are mainly distributed in the regions north of 30°N (Fig. Ⅱ). The characters of these two sections are undoubtedly adapted to different climates. Fourteen new combinations are made here and nine names are first reduced to be synonyms in this paper.