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Sambucus canadensis To support our efforts please see our store (books with medicinal info), or browse the elderberry products below.

Sometimes propagated as an ornamental shrub, the elderberry bush is a member of the honeysuckle family. It attracts birds and butterflies and can be pruned back every few years to keep it looking good in a landscaped garden. This deciduous shrub produces a fruit that, in recent years has become very popular. The white flowers transform into dark purple fruit late summer. Although the flowers and berries are edible all other parts of this bush are poisonous containing toxic calcium oxalate crystals. Sambucus canadensis is a very close cousin of Sambucus nigra (European Elderberry). 
Distinguishing Features: This shrub has soft, smooth, gray-brownish bark with corky bumps. There is spongy, white pith inside the twigs and branches. The elderberry bush produces showy white umbel flowers in the spring. Edible purplish-black fruit ripens in drooping clusters late summer and they measure 3–5 mm in diameter.

Flowers: Each radially symmetrical flower has 5 flattened, white petals in a large umbrella-shaped cluster and has five protruding stamens (male parts). The overall flower head measures anywhere between 15 and 30 cm in diametre. Fields of Nutrition has medicinal benefits and vitamin/mineral content of Elderberry.

Leaves: The leaves are pinnate with 5 to 9 leaflets (rarely 3 or 11). Each leaf is 5 to 30 cm long, and the dark green leaflets have serrated margins.

Height: Up to 3m.

Habitat: Elderberry prefers moist soil but tolerates dry soil as well. It grows best in full sun. It is native to a large area of North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. They grow wild in parts of Mexico and Central America.

Edible parts: The berries and flowers are edible. Flowers can be tossed into a salad. Eating the berries raw is not favoured by many. Elderberries tend to end up as pies, in pancakes, jams, jellies, and in wine making.

Other name: Common Elderberry.

Similar plants: Red-berried Elderberry.


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