Bare twigs glow blood-red in winter, and the smooth-edged leaves show stringy threads when pulled apart
Dogwood — sanguinea means 'blood-red'.
Nature · Shrubs
Dogwood
Native · flowers May–Jun · woodland edges and hedgerows, mainly southern England
Cornus sanguinea — Cornaceae
A small shrub of woodland edges and hedges, best known in winter for its blood-red twigs and in autumn for its crimson leaves. Its foul-smelling four-petalled flowers give way to black 'dogberries', and its hard, straight stems were once made into skewers.
How to spot them
- ▸Bright red twigs in winter (crimson in sun, lime-green in shade) on smooth, straight, slim stems
- ▸Oval, smooth-edged leaves with curved veins; pull a leaf apart and stringy latex threads appear
- ▸Clusters of small creamy-white, four-petalled flowers with an unpleasant smell
- ▸Small black berries in autumn; leaves turn rich crimson before falling
- ▸Look-alikes: spindle has toothed leaves and green four-angled twigs; purging buckthorn has thorn-tipped twigs. Dogwood is neither toothed nor spiny
How to know it
Its straight, hard twigs were made into butchers' skewers, called 'dags' or 'dogs' — the source of its name
Dogwood, or 'skewer wood'.
Clusters of four-petalled creamy flowers that smell unpleasant, followed by black berries
Dogwood.
Leaves have a few pairs of curving veins running parallel to the edge and turn crimson in autumn
Dogwood.
A hedge shrub that can be told from a thorny lookalike, purging buckthorn, by having no spines
Dogwood.
A legend holds that its hard wood was chosen for the cross of the crucifixion
Dogwood (Woodland Trust records the legend).
Quick-fire facts
- •Cornus sanguinea — sanguinea is Latin for 'blood-red', for the winter twigs; family Cornaceae
- •Name origin: the smooth straight twigs were used for butchers' skewers, once called 'dags' or 'dogs' — 'skewer wood' (Woodland Trust)
- •Its wood is among the hardest of British shrubs (Woodland Trust)
- •Twigs are crimson in sun and lime-green in shade
- •Pulled apart, the leaves reveal a stringy, latex-like substance
- •The flowers, hermaphrodite and insect-pollinated, smell unpleasant; the berries ('dogberries') are black
- •Moth caterpillars, including a case-bearer, eat the leaves; the berries feed mammals and birds
- •Typical of southern English hedgerows on lime-rich soil, so a good indicator of an older mixed hedge when applying Hooper's rule
- •Not the same as the American flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), though both are Cornus
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)