Sambucus cerulea
Raf.
Blue Elderberry, Blue elder
(c) Matthew Zlatunich, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Matthew Zlatunich
(c) Matthew Zlatunich, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit, Flowers, Flowers - tea
The flower blossoms can be used to make tea. The fruits can be eaten raw (despite containing a toxin), dried, or as jelly.
Known Hazards
Dangerous Lookalikes
This plant can be confused with the following toxic species. Always verify identification carefully before consuming any wild plant.
Pokeweed: Thick red/purple herbaceous stems (no bark), berries in a line (raceme), simple large leaves, large white taproot.
Blue Elderberry: Woody bark, berries in broad flat clusters (cymes), compound leaves with 5-7 leaflets.
Where to Find It
It is a temperate plant. It usually grows on dry open sites with gravelly or stony soils.
Australia, Canada, Central America, Mexico, North America, USA,
How to Identify
A tall shrub. It has an irregular shape. It can be a small tree up to 10 m tall. The trunk can be 20 cm across. The bark is thin and light brown. The leaves have 5-9 leaflets on a central stalk which has a groove. The stalk is 6-12 cm long. The leaflets are 5-15 cm long and sword shaped. They are bluish-green above and paler underneath. They do not have hairs. They have an unpleasant smell when crushed. The twigs are stout and the buds are large. The flowers are creamy white in flat topped clusters. These have 5 branches. The clusters are 7-15 cm across. They appear after the leaves have fully grown. The fruit are bluish-black. They are 3-5 mm across. They are juicy and sweet with 3 seeds.
How to Grow
It can be grown from roots.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Sambucus cerulea or Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea, with the common names blue elderberry and blue elder, is a coarse textured shrub species of elder in the family Adoxaceae.
Notes
There are about 25 Sambucus species. Also put in the family Sambucaceae. The fruit have high antioxidant activity.
Names & Synonyms
Blue elder, Blue-berry elder, Mexican elder, Sauco, Chicnan
References (24)
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- Bocek, B. R., 1984, Ethnobotany of Costanoan Indians, California, Based on Collections by John P. Harrington. Economic Botany 38(2): 240-255
- Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 905
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- Farrar, J.L., 1995, Trees of the Northern United States and Canada. Iowa State University press/Ames p 174
- Flowerdew, B., 2000, Complete Fruit Book. Kyle Cathie Ltd., London. p 178 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Glowinski, L., 1999, The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia. Lothian. p 176 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Hedrick, U.P., 1919, (Ed.), Sturtevant's edible plants of the world. p 592 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Hibbert, M., 2002, The Aussie Plant Finder 2002, Florilegium. p 286 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- http://www.stoller-eser.com/Flora/ethnobotany_table.htm
- John, L., & Stevenson, V., 1979, The Complete Book of Fruit. Angus & Robertson p 129 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Kiple, K.F. & Ornelas, K.C., (eds), 2000, The Cambridge World History of Food. CUP p 1771 (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Mabberley, D. J., 1990, The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the higher plants. Cambridge University Press. NY.
- MacKinnon, A., et al, 2009, Edible & Medicinal Plants of Canada. Lone Pine. p 125
- Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/ (As Sambucus caerulea)
- Segura, S. et al, 2018, The edible fruit species in Mexico. Genet Resour Crop Evol (2018) 65:1767–1793 (Also as Sambucus velutina)
- Turner, N., 1995, Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Royal BC Museum Handbook p 66
- Turner, N., 1997, Food Plants of Interior First Peoples. Royal BC Museum Handbook p 103
- USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN). [Online Database] National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Available: www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/econ.pl (10 April 2000)
- Wiersema, J. H. & Leon, B., 2013, World Economic Plants. A Standard Reference CRC Press. 2nd Ed. p 611
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
