Journalist and naturalist Hal Borland once observed: “To see a hillside white with dogwood bloom is to know a particular ecstasy of beauty, but to walk the gray winter woods and find the buds which will resurrect in another May is to partake of continuity.”
Among the gray winter wood and the slate-colored monuments of the West Tisbury cemetery, and just ahead of the burgeoning buds, bold, bright red stems caught my eye. Speeding by and seeing them daily, I made a mental note to stop and take a closer look.
The red stems that kept attracting my attention were not a mystery, being easy to identify even during a drive-by. Red osier dogwood is an off-season stunner, a native North American plant that is common across Massachusetts, but not found in the wild on this Island or our sister island to the east.
Because of its beauty and functionality, domestic cultivars of this rosy dogwood are popular and can be found on-Island when planted as a landscape enhancement.
While I stopped at the cemetery with the intent of botanizing, it turned out that the two osier dogwood shrubs that I had noticed from afar embraced a pair of Islanders. The headstones, plantings and memorial items at the graves of Cynthia and James Hamlin Walsh made it clear that these West Tisburians were beloved, which only increased my desire to learn more about them.
James died young, at 44 years old, and was known for his passion for the environment and love of sports. He founded an environmental tech company that was developing a plan to produce clean energy from waste.
Cynthia was James’ mother, and her obituary portrayed her as the “treasured matriarch that filled her home with love, wit, and gourmet cooking.” Her locks shared the color of dogwood stems and she was styled a “beautiful redhead with boundless energy.” I would be remiss to not share the rest of the expressive portrayal which noted that she had “a hearty laugh that loved a good story, especially about Island life or foolish Republicans.”
As a docent at Polly Hill Arboretum and volunteer at the Animal Shelter, she might have known and appreciated red osier dogwood for its looks and wildlife value. Red osier dogwood is a host plant for the larva of the spring azure butterfly (which should be emerging very soon), and provides sustenance for at least 45 animal species, including birds and mammals.
And James, whose professional life was devoted to environmental problem-solving, might have admired this dogwood’s utility as a plant to reduce erosion — and for its other cultural uses.
Indigenous people employed red osier dogwood to treat colds, stop bleeding, to make natural dyes and as an alternative to tobacco. Basketry, wicker, farm implements and weaving shuttles were also constructed from the shrub’s hardwood.
Those that doggedly wonder about the name of this plant might be surprised at its derivation. The nomenclature emerges from a Scandinavian root word “dag,” which means “skewer,” and doesn’t have anything to do with canines. Cynthia, whose tombstone reads, “that day is wasted in which we have not laughed,” might have woofed this silly joke: “How do you tell it is a dogwood? By its bark, of course!”
It would have been nice to know Cynthia or James during their lifetimes. But I feel lucky and honored to have made their acquaintance in this roundabout way — through the red osier dogwoods. May the forest of their memories long be glimpsed through the trees and red shrubs.
Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.
This article appears in April 10, 2026.