[Note: Parts of this entry were previously at bead tree.]
beadwood n chiefly wNC Cf bead bush n
A witch hazel n (here: Hamamelis virginiana).
1898 Watauga Democrat (Boone NC) 28 July [2]/4, Then with said line up the branch 10 poles to a bunch of beadwood bushes. 1913 Jackson Co. Jrl. (Sylva NC) [8 Aug 2]/1, First Tract. Beginning on a bead-wood bush in branch, R. A. Nicholson’s corner, and runs thence South to a lynn in Bill Wood’s line. 1937 Hall Coll. eTN, To cure blood poison, use catnip and beadwood bark boiled together and made into a poultice. 1961 in 1974 Miller News Pigeon Roost 12 Oct nwNC, It is reported that the most kind of the one herb that has been collected here for the Bontanical [sic] market this season that is now closing appears to be the beadwood (witch hazel) leaves. 1966 DARE (Qu. BB50d, . . A spring tonic) Inf NC30, Bead-wood tea. 1971 Morning News (Wilmington DE) 24 Sept 21/8, A North Carolina native, brought up on a farm, he lived in Virginia for several years before moving to Maryland. . . The “divining rod,” he says, is a matter of choice. He prefers beadwood but settles for peach because “you can’t find beadwood around here.” 1993 in 1998 Cooper–Cooper Pond Mountain 170 nwNC, Then I had an uncle that, as I’s growing up in Wilkes County, that’s all he did for a living. He would pull beadwood leaves, gather star root. Beadwood grows up here, also. 2003 Appalachian Jrl. 30.291 nwNC, And then the witch hazel. Now we was teached to call it beadwood. Its seed on it looked like a bead, kind of. And the beadwood bark, here’s something now, with me. I had a fever blister on my lip some years ago. . . There was a beadwood bush up there. I’d never known no people in the mountains a using it for nothing. It’ll draw in your mouth. ‘I’m gonna chew me some of it.’ It cured that fever blister well in three days.