How did settlers use dogwood?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

April 15, 2003

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The dogwoods (genus Cornus Linnaeus) comprise about forty-five species of trees and shrubs native to North America, Europe, and Asia. The genus designation, Cornus, the common English name, cornel, and common French, cornouiller, come from Latin, cornu, meaning horn for the hardness of the wood.

Even though the trees are small, the density and hardness of the wood, its ability to take a polish, its resistance to splintering, and its shock-absorbance, made dogwoods useful for small specialty items. According to the 1889 Century Unabridged Dictionary, "Dogwood is so exceptionally free from silex (silica) that watchmakers use small splinters of it for cleaning out the pivot-holes of watches, and opticians for removing dust from small deep-seated lenses." The absence of silica meant the wood did not scratch or wear-out objects it contacted.

Dogwoods—Beautiful all year!—Gorgeous spring blossoms, handsome summer foliage, plus a stunning fall color show. Red has red-purple foliage tints when it leafs out. Pink is green-and-yellow variegated. Berries cling into winter. Grows 15-25 ft. tall, spreads 12-20 ft. Likes partial shade, tolerates full sun. Click here - $20 off at Henry Fields Seed and Nursery! [More dogwoods...]

In Europe, boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and cornel (Cornus mas and C. sanguinea) and in North America, dogwood (Cornus florida) served to make the myriad of small objects that make life easier. Metals were too expensive and too heavy to transport for most people settling the New World. People only took the absolute necessities the horse, mule, or canoe could carry; they made everything else they needed.

Dogwood was fashioned into hay forks and mallets, cogwheels and pegs for grain mills, pulleys and wheel hubs, knitting needles and crochet hooks, spindles, bobbins, and other parts of spinning wheels, and forks, spoons, and bowls. Printers used small engraved blocks of dogwood for printing pictures (wood prints). Drafting tools, rules and T-squares, were made of the hard and stable dogwood.

Even the name, dogwood, comes from the name of a tool. Its earliest known use was a dag or dagge (from the Celtic/Old Gaelic, daga, a pointed tool). Daggewood could be fashioned into any of various pointed tools from leather punches to meat skewers.

All Righteous Woods, a specialty lumber supplier, has a photograph of dogwood boards showing the hard close grain. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.righteouswoods.net/Dogwood.html

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Dogwood, Flowering Special

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Dogwoods

Henry Fields Seed and Nursery®

Beautiful all year!

Gorgeous spring blossoms, handsome summer foliage, plus a stunning fall color show. Red has red-purple foliage tints when it leafs out. Pink is green-and-yellow variegated. Berries cling into winter. Dogwood grows 15-25 ft. tall, spreads 12-20 ft. Likes partial shade and tolerates full sun.

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Red Twig Dogwood Shrub

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Noted for Its Bright Red Bark

A landscape accent for every season! Red Twig Dogwood Shrub starts spring with creamy ivory flowers, summer with red-tinted foliage and, finally, sports bright red bark in winter. Grows 5-8 feet tall. Potted plants.

Flowering shrubs are bargains in beauty. They produce a profusion of flowers and foliage- a feast for our senses- and seem equally attractive to birds, butterflies and hummingbirds.

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Comments: Creamy ivory flowers in the spring and red tinged foliage in the fall. Crimson bark is a great attraction in the winter. Prune in summer if needed. Wet site tolerant.

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Honey-Sweet Fragrance

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Golden Chain Tree

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