A dogwood also known as the white cornel from the colour of the berries.  Dogwoods have had a number of strange and varied uses throughout the ages. Old writers tell how South American Indians would smoke its bark mixed with tobacco while, in Jamaica, they caught fish with it. Apparently, dogwood charcoal was a gunpowder ingredient.

The wood, being so hard, was used for such things as mill cogs, pestles, bobbins, spokes, toothpicks and butchers’ skewers. And, watchmakers would take little splinters of dogwood for cleaning out tiny pivot holes, But why the name? What links does it have with dogs?

One answer is quite surprising - A 19th century writer gave the explanation that it was called dogwood because ‘a decoction of its leaves was used to wash dogs to free them from vermin’. So, it seems that the plant was a good, old-fashioned flea remedy.