Photo: Willow — CC BY 2.5 · source
Survives zone 4 through 8
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 across Europe and western Asia and naturalized well beyond it, this fast-growing hedgerow shrub bears flat-topped clusters of small, glossy black-purple berries — sweeter and less rank than some American elders — traditionally cooked down for cordial, wine and jam.
- Hardiness
- Zone 4–8
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Flower, Fruit
- Ripens
- Aug–Sept
- Mature size
- Shrub 3–5 m
- Light
- Full sun to partial — flowers and fruits best in full sun
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.0
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Native to Europe — from Scandinavia south to North Africa — and western Asia including the Caucasus; long naturalized and widely planted well beyond this range, including in North America.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- 60–90 cm/year once established — a fast-growing shrub that can reach 4–6 m within a few years if left unpruned.
- Spacing
- 250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Opposite, pinnate leaves typically with 5 (occasionally 3–9) leaflets, each ovate to ovate-lanceolate or ovate-elliptic with an acuminate tip and serrate margin, 3–9 cm long.
- Root system
- Suckering — sends up new shoots from underground runners at some distance from the base, gradually forming a spreading clump or thicket if not restrained.
- Fruit description
- Small, glossy black-purple berries about 8 mm across, hanging in heavy, flat-topped clusters that droop as they ripen in August–September; raw fruit has an unpleasant, faintly bitter taste, but cooking brings out a rich, wine-like flavor good for cordial, jam and syrup.
- Propagation
- Seed benefits from about two months of warm stratification followed by two months cold before spring germination, or can be sown outdoors as soon as ripe in autumn. Half-ripe (semi-hardwood) cuttings, 7–10 cm with a heel, root readily in July–August; hardwood cuttings, 15–20 cm with a heel, taken in late autumn root just as easily. Suckers can also be lifted and divided during dormancy.
- Pollination
- Studies of S. nigra have found self-pollination rates as low as 1–2% — most seed set comes from insect cross-pollination between genetically distinct plants, so a single unpartnered bush will flower well but crop only lightly.
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.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Tolerates poor soils and rarely needs regular feeding, but a spring application of a general-purpose fertiliser — such as Growmore or fish, blood and bone — followed by a mulch of organic matter, encourages vigorous regrowth after hard pruning.
How it spreads. Spreads by suckering, sending up new stems from underground runners some distance from the parent plant, and readily colonizes hedgerows, scrub, woodland edges and disturbed, nutrient-rich ground — often acting as an early pioneer species in cleared or waste ground.
Growing tips. Very easily grown in almost any soil, from sandy to heavy clay and mildly acid to distinctly alkaline; it tolerates shade but flowers and fruits far better in full sun, and is notably resistant to honey fungus. Watch for the elder cane borer — a roundheaded beetle whose larvae tunnel canes, leaving round exit holes and wilting tips — and elderberry rust (Puccinia sambuci); cut out and destroy affected canes. In the RHS pruning system it's Group 1 and tolerates hard pruning or coppicing every 3–4 years — cutting an overgrown plant back nearly to the ground in late winter brings vigorous regrowth by spring.
Grow journal
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