Creeping dogwood, Cornus canadensis
The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked. Pleasant but without much flavour.
The fruits are rather dry a bit gummy and rather mealy but they have a pleasant slightly sweet flavour, though they are not the type of fruit I would like to eat raw in quantity.
They can be added to breakfast cereals or used for making jams, pies, puddings etc.
An excellent ingredient for steamed plum puddings.
High in pectin, so it can be used with pectin-low fruits when making jam. Pectin is said to protect the body against radiation.
The fruit is about 6mm in diameter and is borne in small clusters on top of the plants.
A tea has been used in the treatment of aches and pains, kidney and lung ailments, coughs, fevers etc.
A strong decoction has been used as an eye wash.
A tea made from the roots has been used to treat infant colic.
The mashed roots have been strained through a clean cloth and the liquid used as an eyewash for sore eyes and to remove foreign objects from the eyes.
A good dense ground cover plant, growing well in light woodland. It takes a little while to settle down and needs weeding for the first few years but becomes rampant when established and can then spread 60 - 90cm per year.