What - More Blooms?

Meet Cornus Stolonifera – Red-osier Dogwood – also known as red-twig dogwood and kinnikinnik.  It grows everywhere around here as individual shrubs or thickets.  It typically has multiple stems and this time of year sports clusters of white flowers that will lead to fruit in late summer.     

click on images for a closer look

 

The common name for this shrub comes from the red twigs that resemble osier willows that are used in basketry.  The Latin name comes from the rooting of branch tips the reach to the ground to form new shoots or stolons.    

This shrub was important to Native Americans for its use as a tobacco substitute or kinnikinnik.  The inner bark of young stems was split and scraped into threads and toasted over a fire before being mixed with real tobacco.  Edible plant enthusiast H.D. Harrington wrote that Red-osier - is said to be aromatic and pungent, giving a narcotic effect approaching stupefaction.  He cautioned that it should be used in moderation.    

For as long as anyone can remember people have used this shrub for basketry, wicker, farm implements, and weaving shuttles.  The word - dogwood - comes from the Scandinavian term “dag” meaning skewer (for the hardened sticks used to roast meat). And while this shrub has nothing to do with our canine friends it is always worth remembering that you can always tell that it is a dogwood by its bark. ….