the.com/dogwood
a spring show-off whose flashy petals are actually leaves, while the real flowers go unnoticed.
means A flowering tree or shrub of the genus Cornus, prized for its showy spring blooms and hard, dense wood.
from The name was originally "dagwood" or "dogtree," from "dag" or "dog," an old word for a skewer or sharp pointed stick — the tree's tough, fine-grained wood was carved into "dags," daggers, skewers, and butcher's pricks. So the "dog" here likely has nothing to do with the animal; it's a cousin of "dagger." There's also an old folk story that a decoction of its bark was used to wash mangy dogs, but the skewer-wood explanation is the one etymologists favor.
- fake flowers
- Showy white bracts are leaves, not petals.
- hard as nails
- Wood once made golf clubs and weaving shuttles.
- name origin
- Likely from dagwood, used to make daggers.
- berry power
- Red fruits feed dozens of bird species.
- virginia pride
- State flower of Virginia and North Carolina.
cornus florida — flowering dogwood native to eastern north america, state flower of north carolina and missouri
cornus kousa — kousa dogwood from japan and china, widely planted as ornamental in temperate zones
cornus sanguinea — common dogwood of europe, produces red stems and dark berries in autumn