elderberry

This is the type of elderberry tree that I remember from my former life in California. They grew along the path from my friends house to the La Purisima Mission. We'd eat these ripe off the tree and their family would harvest them to make elderberry jam.

This, however, is the common elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, that grows wild along the ditches in the Bohemian Alps to the west of us that recently made its way onto our property in the river valley. It is about 6 feet high. Here's the flowers and tiny immature berries:

Here is a flower head from the side taken in the evening:

I'm not too keen about eating the flowers, but we'll wait and watch to see if these berries turn purple and juicy:

According to what I've read, ripe berries and flowers are both edible and can be used medicinally, although fresh berries contain alkaloids that upset some people's stomach. Cooking or drying the berries eliminates these. Green berries will make you sick as will the leaves, bark and roots, which Steve Brill says are poisonous. This USDA Plant Guide says leaves can be used externally for medicinal purposes, and the hard, hollow stems have been used historically by native americans. I suppose they stripped the poisonous bark? For now, we'll watch and wait and see how our common elderberry compares to my memory of this fruit.