Cornus Nuttallii01

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The name dogwood most likely came from the Sanskrit word "dag," meaning skewers. The botanical name "nuttallii" is named after Thomas Nuttall, a British born botanist and ornithologist who died in 1859. The name "Cornus" means horn and may refer to the hard wood.

The habitat of the Pacific Dogwood is generally in moist soils. This tree exists as an understory tree of coniferous forests, along stream banks at altitudes between 2,460-6,398, and often associated with all the gigantic West Coast forests, including those dominated by skyscraping Sitka Spruce, Coastal Redwoods, Giant Sequoia, Douglas fir, Western Hemlock, Maples, Nuttall will, Red Alder, White Alder, and many species of pine. The range of the Pacific Dogwood is to lower elevation forests in and West of the Cascades, from southern British Columbia to Northern California. Pacific Dogwood also grows southward at increasing elevations in the mountains of Central and Southern California. In addition there are also local population in Idaho .

The Pacific Dogwood is especially unusual because it commonly grows and blossoms in the somber of giant conifers, a habitat in which relatively few hardwoods can prosper. It is successful because it carries out photosynthesis under only 1/3 of full sunlight, hence, shade tolerant.

The leaves are opposite, oval and have pointed tips with a slight toothed edge. Pacific dogwood leaves are dark green which turn orange in fall.

The flowers are showy, white and actually four to six modified leaves that surround a cluster of 30 to 40 small green flowers. Dogwoods usually flower in spring and again in fall.

The dark red berries are edible but bitter, and are more popular with Stellar Jays and Squirrels than as a food source. Some aboriginal people used the wood for bows and arrows. The Cowichan people on Vancouver island used the wood for making knitting needles.

The Straits Salish made a tanning agent from the bark. The Thompson people made dyes - deep brown from the bark, black when mixed with grand fir tree bark, and earthy red from the roots of the Dogwood.
The wood is fine-grained, hard, of a pinkish color, and takes good polish. It is not used commercially with in the Province of British Columbia, in fact, the flower is the floral emblem and legislation protects the tree from being dug up or cut down. During the 1920's, the wood was cut and used for spindles or reels for thread, and piano keys. The bark is smooth and grayish white.

Some Northwest Indians boiled the bark to make a laxative, and the tannin rich bark was used by some frontiersmen in place of quinine to cure malaria. The hard wood has also been used extensively for landscaping has been the chief use of Pacific dogwood. Other uses include the occasional use for cabinets and tool handles.

Young twigs were also chewed to clean teeth. The bark contains quinine, so that when boiled, the decoction has been used to treat fevers, stomach troubles, diarrhea and liver problems and to promote a flagging appetite. The Nlaka’pamux used a bark decoction as a blood purifier and a lung strengthener as well. They also used an extract of the bark to make a dark brown dye. The bark was also used in the Saanich ‘ten barks medicine’. Pioneers used the seeds soaked in brandy to relieve excess stomach acid. In the interior a bark decoction or tea was used as a febrifuge, an antipectoral, a mild analgesic, an anthelmintic and when fresh as a cathartic. Its also been found to have slightly antiseptic properties. A flower decoction has been used to bring on a late menstruation and a bark poultice has been used for sores, inflammation and skin ulcers.