Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

This text was originally published in Coastal Grower (formerly The Island Grower) in Victoria, British Columbia. For subscription information, please call Susanne Steele at the Coastal Grower at 250-478-0825.

More and more people are turning to native plants to play various roles in their garden. Attracting birds and other wildlife has become a highly desirable characteristic. Berries provide an irresistible magnet to many birds. Our red elderberry must be among the champion berry producers and it's exceptionally attractive too.

This member of the Honeysuckle Family (Caprifoliaceae) forms a medium to tall bushy shrub reaching 3.3 m (10') tall and stretching 3.3 m (10') across. The greyish pithy stems and twigs are marked by raised spots called lenticels. The large, compound leaves have 5-7 ellipse-shaped, pointed and toothed leaflets. All parts of the plant produce a skunky smell, tolerable outside, but quite unpleasant indoors.

Numerous creamy white flowers cluster in rounded to pyramid-shaped creamy white heads. Each tiny flower has a little green ovary crowned by 5 clear white petals. These miniscule structures seem to fold back toward the ovary. Six spidery stamens stick out from the inside of the petals and surround a small stigma. Flowers usually appear in May to June according to the local climate. Generous clusters of shiny red to nearly black berries form early to mid summer.

Red elderberry can be found anywhere along the coast of British Columbia and well inland along the major river valleys. It occurs also in the interior wet belt of the Kootenays especially along the Columbia River. The North American range extends from Alaska to all along the U.S. coast. It also occurs in many parts of the Rockies and related forms range across the continent. Typical red elderberry occupies moist open settings such as the edges of swamps or along floodplains. You can also find it in moist forests from low to mid elevation.

Red elderberry makes a relatively easy garden plant. Raise it from cleaned seed, sown in the fall, or from cuttings. Plant in an average to moist -- but well drained -- site, in full sun to partial shade. It is well suited to the banks of ditches under power lines because of its relatively short stature. The late spring blooms provide an attractive show. The bright red fruit is not only showy but draws many an avian dinner guest such as the robin, towhee and western bluebird. This shrub suits the back edge of property particularly well and is likely useful in restoring most open to partly shady sites along the coast. Despite its preference for moist sites, red elderberry exhibits some drought tolerance.

Though many people think (incorrectly) that the fruit is poisonous, it was eaten widely by British Columbia First Peoples. Clusters of berries were gathered in July and August. Berries were detached back at camp and cooked overnight in steaming pits or boiled in redcedar boxes. Berries were placed over fires on skunk cabbage leaves and dried into cakes for later use. To improve the flavour, red elderberries were mixed with other kinds of berries. Recently people mix the berries with sugar and make wine jelly or jam.

Note that roots, stems, bark, leaves, flowers and unripe fruit contain poisonous alkaloids and other substances that may cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Medicinal tea from the plant may cause poisoning. Children have been poisoned when they used the hollowed out stems for peashooters.

Sambucus is the Latin name for the elder and may be related to the Latin word sambuca a kind of harp. Racemosa refers to the technical form of the flower head.