CautionEdible cooked
American elderberry
Sambucus canadensis
Flat white flower plates, then purple berry clusters. Cook the fruit; raw berries upset stomachs.
- Marks
- Pithy stems; flat flower plates; purple clusters
- Size
- 6–12 ft
- Habitat
- Ditch lines, wet fence corners, pond edges.
- Season
- Flowers June; fruit August.
- Frequency
- common
A suckering shrub with opposite, pinnate leaves and pithy stems. Flowers are fragrant cream umbels. Fruit hangs in purple-black plates.
Uses
Cooked jelly, syrup, wine. Flowers for fritters. Stems and roots are not food.
Lookalikes
Pokeweed
Phytolacca americana
Magenta stems, black-purple berries. Young shoots were cooked as poke sallet; roots and berries are toxic.
ToxicDo not eat