Flowering Dogwood

The name “dog-tree” entered the English vocabulary before 1548, becoming “dogwood” by 1614. Once the name dogwood was affixed to this kind of tree, it soon acquired a secondary name as the Hound’s Tree, while the fruits came to be known as dogberries or hound berries.  Another theory advances the view that “dogwood” was derived from the Old English dagwood, from the use of the slender stems of its very hard wood for making “dags” (daggers, skewers, and arrows).  The bark of Cornus species is rich in tannin and has been used as a substitute for quinine.