PLANT OF THE MONTH: Elder (Sambucus Nigra)

This time of year, the hedgerows are heavy with wild berries such as hawthorn, sloes, and these beautiful clusters of shiny elderberries.

The elder tree can grow to around 15 metres tall and may live for up to 60 years. It is widespread across the UK, thriving in woodland, scrub, wasteland, and along hedgerows. Elders are often found near rabbit warrens or badger setts, where the animals help to spread the seeds in their droppings.

Elder trees are characterised by their short trunk, or bole, with grey-brown, corky, furrowed bark, their clusters of white flowers, and their glossy black berries.

Flowers

The flowers provide nectar for a variety of insects, while the berries are eaten by birds and mammals. Small mammals, such as dormice and bank voles, feed on both flowers and fruit.

Many moth caterpillars also rely on elder foliage, including the white-spotted pug, swallowtail, dot moth, and buff ermine. The flowers, borne on large flat umbels 10–30 cm across, are creamy-coloured, strongly scented, and five-petalled. They generally appear from late May.

Uses and Folklore

Although the flowers and cooked berries (pulp and skin) are edible, the raw berries and other parts of the Sambucus genus are poisonous, containing traces of arsenic.

The flowers are traditionally used to make wine, cordial, or tea, and can even be fried into fritters. The berries, rich in vitamin C, are used in preserves and wines, or baked into pies with blackberries.

Folklore around elder is abundant. It was once said that burning elder wood would summon the Devil, but planting it by your house would keep him away. Elder is also called the ‘Judas tree’, as legend has it Judas Iscariot hanged himself from one.

Elder wood is hard and yellow-white. Mature timber is valued for whittling and carving, while smaller stems can be hollowed to make craft items. In the past, elder foliage was hung to repel flies, particularly around dairies.

The tree has long been a source of natural dyes. Its berries yield blue and purple, the leaves give yellow and green, and the bark produces greys and blacks. Historically, these dyes were used in the making of richly patterned Harris Tweed.

The name elder is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon aeld, meaning “fire”, because its hollow stems were once used as bellows to blow air into flames.

Credit: woodlandtrust.org.uk