Red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)
Gitxsan name: xhlaahl
Wet'suwet'en name: kak dilk'in
Botanical Description
- freely spreading, stoloniferous shrub with many stems, 1-4 metres tall
- sharp pointed, oval leaves, prominent veins
- white to greenish flowers, small and numerous, in dense flat-topped
terminal clusters
- white (occasionally blue-tinged) small berrylike drupes, bitter and
inedible
- found in moist soil, from swamps to open upland forest
- valley bottoms to mid elevations
Photo courtesy of Ray Coupe (58kB)
Ethnobotanical Description
The inner bark of the red-osier dogwood was boiled and applied as a
poultice to sores or swellings as a pain killer. It was also smoked for diseases affecting
the lungs. The wood was used for the frame of the "dome-shaped" sweat hut or
fasting hut. The cambium layer was used as a female medicine for reproductive problems
such as PMS and after childbirth.
This digital collection was produced under contract to the SchoolNet
Digital Collection Program, Industry Canada.
Revised: 08/21/98
