blue elderberry

Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Wsiegmund assumed (based on copyright claims). — CC BY 2.5 · source

Survives zone 6 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ MUST BE COOKED — raw berries, leaves and stems are toxic. Native to the western US; the berries carry a powdery, glaucous bloom that gives them a dusty blue color over black skin, and are considered the sweetest-tasting of the North American elders. Taxonomically unsettled: also published as "Sambucus caerulea" (an orthographic variant of the same name) and as "Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea" (treating it as part of the wider black-elder complex rather than its own species) — all three names describe the same western blue elder.

Hardiness

Zone 6–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Flower, Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

Large shrub 3–6 m

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

5.5–7.0

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Western North America — from southern British Columbia south through California and the Great Basin to Baja California and northwestern Mexico, extending east into Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas — largely a riparian and forest-edge species from sea level up to roughly 3,000 m.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

60–120 cm/year while establishing — FEIS rates it a 'very good' grower, often reaching full size in 3–4 years in the Intermountain West.

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, odd-pinnate leaves with 5–9 leaflets, each elliptic to lanceolate, 3–15 cm long, with sharply serrate margins and an acuminate tip.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and spreading rather than deep-rooted, with no true taproot. Spreads mainly through basal or root-crown resprouting after damage rather than widely running rhizomes.

Fruit description

Small, round drupes 4–6 mm across, bluish-black under a waxy, glaucous bloom that gives the clusters a dusty powder-blue look, borne in large, flat-topped cymes. Considered the best-flavored of the North American elders — sweet and juicy when ripe but seedy and rather rank-tasting raw — used cooked for jam, syrup, pie and wine.

Propagation

Seed needs a two-stage stratification — about 60–90 days warm followed by 60–90 days cold (around 4°C) — or can simply be sown outdoors in autumn as soon as ripe; the hard seed coat otherwise delays germination for 2–5 years, so growers also scarify seed with sulfuric acid or heat to speed it up. Softwood or semi-ripe cuttings taken in July–August, and hardwood cuttings taken in late autumn, both root readily — elder is notoriously easy from cuttings.

Pollination

Self-fertile and generally doesn't require a second plant to set fruit, unlike S. nigra and S. canadensis selections, which crop far better with a cross-pollinating partner nearby.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.