American (Canadian ) Elder

American (Canadian) Elder, June 19

     The other flower appearing after the devastating mowing is the American or Canadian Elder, with the scientific name of Sambucus canadensis. This plant was growing next to a large boulder which protected it from the tractor’s blades. A native shrub, it grows along streambanks, on moist roadsides and in woodlands in eastern North America.  The plant has small white flowers that grow in an umbrella-like fashion.  American Elder plants can grow to be 12 feet tall, but are usually smaller so they are considered to be a shrub or a bush.  A tree is considered to be a plant that grows taller than 10 to 13 feet. Any woody plant shorter than this is considered a shrub. The words “bush” and “shrub” can be used synonymously, but the difference between a shrub and a bush has to do with the look of the plant. If the plant doesn’t grow straight up on a trunk, and grows in the wild with a lot of different stalks, but only one root system, you can consider it a bush but you don’t have to.  The American elder shrub can be found in much of eastern Canada, the U.S. states east of the Rocky Mountains, and south all the way to Puerto Rico, eastern Mexico and Central America down to Panama.  It will grow in a variety of conditions, on both wet and dry soil, but primarily needs a sunny location. 

     American Elder is a deciduous sucking shrub, which means that new plants grow up from the parent plant’s root system, making it thicker. Its leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, they are pinnate, which means they grow on a stem with a terminal leaf or leaves on top.  The American Elder leaves grow in pairs of 4 to 8 with one terminal leaf on top of the stem.  The leaflets are around 10 centimeters long and 5 centimeters across.  Flower clusters, called corymbs, emerge in the summer above the foliage.  A corymb is a botanical term for flowers that grow around a central stem in such a way that the outer most ones have longer pedicels, or stalks, than the central ones, allowing the flowers to appear to be flat.  Individual flowers have 5 petals but only reach about a half inch in diameter.  After the flowers are fertilized, they produce green berries which turn dark purple to black as they ripen.  These berries also grow to be about a half inch in diameter.  The berries are edible, but other parts of the plant are not and contain toxic calcium oxalate crystals, which are the makings of kidney stones in us humans.

     There are at least 10 species of the plant in the world, and one of them that grows in America, the American Red, or Scarlet Elder (S. pubens), produces toxic berries and needs to be avoided. The berries of this plant are red, and very small – only 1/5 of an inch in diameter. This plant produces cyanogenic glycoside which releases cyanide, a poison, so beware!

     Berries from the American Elder plant ripen in late summer to early fall.  They are rich in vitamin C and contain anthocyanins which are antioxidants and neutralize free radicals which assist in the reduction of age-related cellular damage and improve cognitive brain function. They are also a good source of vitamins B1, B2 and B6. The ripe berries of the American Elder have a bittersweet flavor that might seem slightly unpleasant at first, but these can be eaten raw or cooked and the flavor improves when the berries are dried. Fresh berries can be used with added sugar to make pies, jellies, jams, or sauces.  Dried or fresh berries can also be added to bread batter and baked. Raw elderberry juice is a good source of iron and potassium and vitamins A, B6 and C. The flowers can also be eaten raw or cooked. Sometimes the flowers are covered in batter and made into fritters, or soaked in water to make a pleasant tea. A tea can also be made from the dried flowers.  Flowers can be picked before opening and pickled, and used as flavoring in candies. Elder flowers contain flavonoids, and rutin, which improve immune function when combined with vitamin C. They also contain tannins which reduces bleeding, diarrhea and congestion and may even help combat influenza. 

     I did not know that the American Elder growing in my Greenway is such a helpful plant.  While the leaves, bark, unripe berries and roots of the plant are not good to eat, they have many medicinal uses and can aid in the treatment of ailments like joint stiffness, inflammation, and bee stings.  The root activity of the American Elder plant will encourage fermentation of your decaying things when planted next to your compost heap, and a good black dye can be made from its bark.  Flowers steeped in water can be used externally to tone and soften the skin as well as lighten freckles and age spots. And the inner bark of young shoots of the Elder plants can be used as an insecticide.  Prepare this by boiling 3 to 4 handfuls of leaves in a liter of water, and then straining it, allowing the liquid to cool before applying it to your skin.  Supposedly this will repel many insects.  This concoction can also treat fungal infections such as leaf rot and powdery mildew. In the past, native people of the Americas used the branches of the Elder bush to make the shaft of their arrows.  They also turned split stems of the Elder bush into Clapper sticks that accompanied their singing and dancing in round-house ceremonies.  The hollowed stems can also be turned into whistles and flutes, and can be used as drains when tapping sap from maple trees.

     Elder flowers lack nectar but small bees and other insects visit the flowers in search of pollen.  Ripe berries provide food for birds like robins, bluebirds, catbirds and cardinals.  Small animals like squirrels and turtles and larger animal like foxes, woodchucks, bears, livestock and deer eat the berries and help with the plant’s propagation. In North Carolina, elderberries are food for the migrating band-tailed pigeons. The plants are also food for the larvae of several butterfly and moth species (Lepidoptera) including brown-tail buff ermine, dot moth, emperor moth, engrailed moth, swallow tailed moth and V-pug.        

     Elder berry tinctures are added to fruit juices as a natural colorant but the juice itself is considered a supplement, so it is not sold in a grocery store. Instead you can buy elderberry juice, syrup or extract online.  By themselves, elder berries make excellent wines that are supposed to be just as good as wines made from grapes, in fact, the berries are sometimes added to grape wines to improve their color.  Usually made from the species Sambucus mexicana that grows west of the Rocky Mountains – a blue elderberry, or Sambucus nigris – a black elderberry that originated in Europe but is very close to the American Elder species, the wine has a unique flavor that changes over time.  A white wine can also be made from fermenting the flowers of the Elder shrub with yeast and sugar.  It is believed that these wines have been made for thousands of years in the cooler regions of Europe where Elder shrubs were planted around homes as hedges and the berries were easily harvested. 

    Interested in trying to make Elderberry Wine yourself?  Please check out the resources below.  One important thing to note is that when harvesting Elderberries, be sure to wear gloves, if you don’t, your hands will end up being dyed by the pigments in the fruit.

Danilo Alfaro, The Spruce Eats, “What is Elderberry Wine?” https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-elderberry-wine-5199231#:~:text=Elderberry%20wine%20has%20been%20made,available%20around%20homes%20and%20farms.

Wine has been made from Elder berries and flowers for possibly thousands of years.      

Jack Keller, Wine Maker, “Elderberry Wine: Taming the Wild Elderberry”, https://winemakermag.com/article/841-elderberry-wine#:~:text=Sometimes%20referred%20to%20as%20the,add%20color%2C%20tannin%20and%20complexity.

Other resources:

Joseph A. Galetti, PhD, The University of Main, “A competitive assessment of commercial elderberry (Sambucus sp.) products and th evaluation of copigmentation within elderberry tinctures”, https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3467&context=etd

United States Department of Agriculture, NRCS, “Common Elderberry: Smabucus igra L. ssp. Canadesnsis (L.) R. Bolli” https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/mipmcpg9776.pdf

Arbor Day Foundation, “American Elder”, https://shop.arborday.org/american-elder

Fine Gardening, The Plant Guide, “American elder” Sambucus canadensis, https://www.finegardening.com/plant/american-elder-sambucus-canadensis

Virtual Blue Ridge, “American Elder” Sambucus canadensis, https://www.virtualblueridge.com/nature/american-elder/

Nadia Navarrete-Tindall, Grow Native, “Respect Your Elder: Learn to Love American elderberry” https://grownative.org/project/respect-your-elder-learn-to-love-american-elderberry/

Wikipedia, “Sambucus”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus