{"id":16654,"date":"2022-05-23T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T06:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=60741"},"modified":"2022-05-23T08:32:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T06:32:15","slug":"elder-guide-how-to-identify-when-and-how-to-forage-for-elderflowers-and-elderberries-and-recipe-ideas","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/elder-guide-how-to-identify-when-and-how-to-forage-for-elderflowers-and-elderberries-and-recipe-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Elder guide: how to identify, when and how to forage for elderflowers and elderberries, and recipe ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Julie Bruton-Seal\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 23 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Elder is a native shrub or tree found across the UK, growing in hedgerows, woodland and waste land. Elder trees can live up to 60 years in age, and grow to a height of 15 metres.<\/p>\n

Its flowers are used by pollinating insects, its berries eaten by birds and mammals such as dormice, rabbits and badgers, and its leaves by moth caterpillars such as white-spotted pug, swallowtail, dot moth and buff ermine.<\/p>\n

Elder is a popular plant for foragers as its flowers can be fried to make fritters, or used to make as cordial and gin, and its berries can be cooked and used in vinegars, jams and fruit pies.<\/p>\n

What is the scientific name of elder?<\/h2>\n

The scientific name of common elder is Sambucus nigra<\/em>. The specific epithet \u2018nigra<\/em>\u2019 means black, and refers to the dark berries that the tree bears late in summer.<\/p>\n

It belongs to the Adoxaceae family (having been reclassified from the Caprifoliaceae family).<\/p>\n

How to identify elder, elderflowers, and elderberries<\/h2>\n

Elder is a perennial deciduous shrub or small tree (according to habitat), that is usually quite easy to identify when in flower in late spring to midsummer or when bearing berries in late summer and early autumn.<\/p>\n

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Leaves and flowers of elder. \u00a9 Science Photo Library\/Getty<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

It bears compound leaves with between five and seven pairs of leaflets, which are pointed, smooth and toothed. The leaves can smell unpleasant when touched or bruised.<\/p>\n

The flowers are creamy-white in colour, with five\u00a0rounded petals and prominent stamens, borne in a rounded or flat-topped showy clusters called umbels which can measure between 10-30cm across.<\/p>\n

Elder is a hermaphrodite, with the flowers containing\u00a0both the male and female reproductive parts.<\/p>\n

In midsummer the elder comes into her own. From the depths of her dark leaves and craggy limbs appear great panicles of scented blossom. They cover the tree like white plates and their heady fragrance drenches the warm evenings as you walk past in the lanes in the long late sunlight of high summer. \u2026 Elder is the crown of the hedgerow flowers, the last to blossom after all the thorns.