red osier

American  

noun

1. Also called red-osier dogwood.  a North American dogwood, Cornus sericea (orC. stolonifera ), having red twigs and branches and white fruits.

2. any willow having reddish twigs and branches used for basketry or wickerwork.

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red osier British  

noun

1. any of several willow trees that have red twigs used for basketwork

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Etymology

Origin of red osier

An Americanism dating back to 1800–10

Example Sentences

The immediate shores were also densely covered with the speckled alder, red osier, shrubby willows or sallows, and the like.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 by Various

From my own pasture fence-line will come red osier, dogwood, with its white blooms, its blue berries, its winter stem-coloring, and elderberry.

From How To Write Special Feature Articles A Handbook for Reporters, Correspondents and Free-Lance Writers Who Desire to Contribute to Popular Magazines and Magazine Sections of Newspapers by Bleyer, Willard Grosvenor

There grew the beaked hazel, rue seven feet high, and red osier, whose bark the Indian said was good to smoke, "tobacco before white people came to this country, Indian tobacco."

From Canoeing in the wilderness by Thoreau, Henry David

For damp ground there is no better shrub than the red osier dogwood.

From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools by Ontario. Ministry of Education

Cornel, red osier Whitish, berries white Damp New England pastures.

From Harper's Young People, June 8, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various