I recently bought a Leucothoe for the garden and until this week have just been using its latin name. I've found out that its common names include Fetter Bush, Switch Ivy, Dog Hobble and Dog Laurel. Dog Hobble intrigued me first and I found out it was named this as hunting dogs were/are unable to penetrate thickets of it due to the mass of criss-crossing stems entangling their legs. Many wild plants in the UK have the name Dog attached if the plants were regarded as useless medicinally or not worth eating, so I assume that is why another common name is Dog Laurel. I'm stumped on the last two names. Why Switch Ivy? What is Fetter? Any ideas???
Another older post, but appears worthy of an answer. Fetters are shackles used to restrain the legs. In Buddhism it is also defined by a mental restraint. Fetter is another reference to a restraining of the legs, like hobble. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetter A switch can also be defined as a small limb used to punish or discipline, as in a spanking. Again a reference to hobble or restrain the actions of.
Thanks so much for this. I'd actually forgotten I'd posted it, it was so long ago. Interesting stuff.
