Elder: the instant hedge whose name comes from an ancient Greek whistle
Elder twigs have soft pith that pushes out easily, so people hollowed them into whistles, flutes, blowguns and taps for maple syrup. The genus name Sambucus even recalls an ancient Greek wind instrument. Its berries colour food and flavour liqueurs, though elderberry supplements for colds lack good evidence.
Sambucus holds between 20 and 30 species of fast-growing shrubs and small trees, usually 3 to 10 metres tall, with a few herbaceous kinds. They carry opposite, feathery leaves of five to nine toothed leaflets and broad sprays of small cream flowers in late spring, followed by berries that ripen black, blue-black or red. Linnaeus named the genus, and its wide range and variable form led botanists to describe far too many species. It was moved out of the honeysuckle family, into what is now Viburnaceae.
Elder is found on most continents, more widely in the Northern Hemisphere. It tolerates nitrogen-rich ground, which is why it crops up beside farms and waste heaps, and it ignores soil type and pH as long as it gets sun. In Britain it earned a reputation as an instant hedge because it roots fast and bends easily. Birds eat the berries, band-tailed pigeons feed on them during migration in Northern California, and caterpillars of moths such as the emperor moth graze the leaves.
Toxicity is real but uneven. Parts of some species contain cyanogenic glycosides, and flower or leaf tea carries more than berries. In August 1983, 25 people in Monterey County, California, fell ill after drinking juice pressed from fresh, uncooked elder material, though a 2021 analysis disputed which species was involved and argued the illness was not cyanide poisoning. The same study found no such compounds in commercial Illinois juice. Cooked berries of most species are edible, and raw ones are about 80 percent water and rich in vitamin C.
Uses run from the kitchen to the workshop. Anthocyanin pigments give the juice an intense blue-purple that reddens when diluted, approved as a colourant in the United States and Japan. Elderflower cordial, the French liqueur St-Germain and a Swedish akvavit all rely on the flowers. Watchmakers once cleaned tools with the pith. In folklore an Elder Mother spirit takes revenge if the tree is felled without a rhyme, and the last Harry Potter book almost carried the title Elder Wand.
Source: Sambucus
