Cornus stolonifera

Michx.

Red Osier, Red dogwood, Kinnikinnik

CornaceaeFruit

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What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit is eaten.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It grows just above the timberline in the Rocky Mountains. It can grow to 2,700 m altitude in the SW of USA. It suits hardiness zones 2-5. Arboretum Tasmania.

Australia, Canada, North America, Slovenia, Tasmania, USA,

Countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, St Vincent

How to Identify

A shrubby tree. It has suckers and forms clumps. It has creeping underground stems. It grows 1.8-3 m high. The trunk is 7.5 cm wide. The leaves are oval or sword shaped and green. They are opposite and 4-9 cm long by 1.5-5 cm wide. The leaves turn orange-red in autumn. The winter stems are bright red. The flowers are white. They are 6 mm wide with 4 spreading petals. The flowers are in flattened clusters. The fruit are white. They can also be pale yellow. They are 6-10 mm across. They contain a stone with 2 seeds.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown by seeds or suckers.

Medicinal Uses

Cornus sericea is frequently used for waterway bank erosion protection and restoration in the United States and Canada. Its root system provides excellent soil retention, it is hardy and provides an attractive shrub even when bare in winter, and its ability to be reproduced by cuttings makes it a low-cost solution for large-scale plantings. Some Plateau Indigenous tribes ate the berries to treat colds and to slow bleeding. Known as čhaŋšáša in Lakota, the inner bark was also used by the Lakota and other Native Americans as "traditional tobacco", either by itself or in a mixture with other plant materials. Among the Algonquian peoples such as the Ojibwe, the smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick, blended the inner bark with tobacco, while more western tribes added it to the bearberry leaf to improve the taste. The Ojibwe used red-osier dogwood bark as a dye by taking the inner bark and mixing it with other bloodroot and wild plum to make yellow dye. There are several red dye formulas such as white birch, red osier dogwood, outer and inner bark, oak, Ashes from cedar bark and hot water. Red osier dogwood, alder and hot water used to dye blankets makes a light red dye which isn't very color fast. Bloodroot, wild plum, red osier dogwood, alder were used to dye porcupine quills red. In addition, it was used to make a black dye using alder, red osier dogwood, oak, grindstone dust or black earth, hot water. The withies, or osiers, are used in basketry.

Notes

There are about 45 Cornus species.

Names & Synonyms

Siibi

Cornus sericea

References (17)

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