How to Identify Wild Elderberry
Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) grows throughout the United States and Canada. The red elderberry covers most of the United States (except the south). These shrubs bear edible flowers and berries that can be turned into juice or wine, cooked into jam or baked into pies. Many other tiny berries look like elderberry to the novice forager. Pay close attention to the leaves and flowers of the bush to make sure you have the right specimen, and beginning scouting elderberries in the late spring when they blossom. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Scout out locations where wild elderberries typically grow. Wildman Steve Brill suggests looking alongside rivers, streams and marshes and in deep woods.
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Look at the size of the shrub. Elderberries range in height from five to 15 feet. Anything much larger (or smaller) isn't an elderberry.
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Six opposite leaflets could indicate elderberry. Look for clusters of flowers. According to West Virginia University, both red and black elderberries have clusters of fragrant white flowers. The flower clumps average three to five inches in length. Red elderberries bloom in May, while black elderberries bloom in June or July.
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Black elderberries hanging off a branch Observe the shape of the leaves. Both types of elderberry have opposite leaflets, meaning that leaflets are arranged directly across from one another in pairs on a long compound leaf. Red elderberries have five to seven leaflets on a single leaf while black elderberries have five to 11 (with seven being common). Elderberry leaves are bright green in the spring and summer.
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Look for clusters of heavy fruit that weigh down the shrub branches. Red elderberries are red, and black ones are blackish-purple. The fruits average 1/8-inch apiece; the clusters appear flattened rather than bunched or rounded.
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- Photo Credit Elderberry image by Valeriy82 from Fotolia.com elderberries image by Clivia from Fotolia.com
