Photo: Geoff Derrin, CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
White Dogwood (Rice Flower)
Ozothamnus diosmifolius
Also known as Rice Flower, Pill Flower, Sago Bush, Native Rosemary
Key benefits
✦Traditional uses
✦White dogwood is better known by its market name, rice flower, so called because its unopened buds cluster along the stem like tiny grains of rice. It is not a plant with a documented history in traditional internal medicine. Its real inheritance is horticultural: it grows wild across the heaths and dry forests of eastern Australia, where it has long been valued for its wiry, everlasting stems, and it became one of the country's signature cut flower exports in the twentieth century, prized by florists for blooms that hold their shape and color for weeks. The crushed foliage carries a sharp, resinous scent that has made it a familiar presence in native gardens as much for its fragrance as for its flowers.
How to grow & use it
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“For the gardener wanting a hardy native that flowers for months, or the florist reaching for a spray of pearl-white buds that simply refuse to wilt.”
Rice flower became one of Australia's most successful floral exports because its tiny buds and blooms can survive the trip across the world in a vase of water without dropping a petal, a trait that made Australian growers famous among florists overseas.
White dogwood (Ozothamnus diosmifolius) does not have an established history as a food or medicinal herb, and there is no reliable body of evidence on its safety for internal use, so it should not be taken as a tea, tincture, or other ingested remedy. Like many aromatic, resinous shrubs, its foliage and sap may cause skin irritation in sensitive individuals during handling or pruning, so gloves are a sensible precaution. Keep it out of reach of children and pets who might chew on the stems or foliage, as with any ornamental plant not intended for consumption. If you have questions about this or any other plant, speak with a qualified herbalist, doctor, or poison control resource before use.