Dogwood (Cornus florida)   Dogwood is the state flower of North Carolina and Virginia. Buy state flowers

According to legend the dogwood was the size of the oak and other forest trees. Being firm and strong, it was chosen as the timber for the cross, during the Crucifixtion of Christ. According to stories, the tree was distressed for being used for a cruel purpose, and Jesus being nailed to it sensed this and told the tree, "Because of your regret and pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross, two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the middle of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember ..." The wood of dogwood was widely used in the textile industry and to make shuttlecocks, spools, dowels, baseball bats and shingles. Dogwood is so hard that it can even be used as a wedge to split other wood. The bark was used to make tea as a remedy for fever. A concoction made form its leaves was used to wash dogs to free them from vermin, or made from dogwood bark to cure mange. British Columbia adopted the Pacific dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, as its official provincial flower in 1956. On April 23, 1995 President and Mrs. Clinton planted a flowering dogwood on the grounds of the White House to memorialize the loss of life in the Oklahoma City Bombing. ********

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