Foraging for Blue Elderberry: What you Need to Know

Blue elderberry holds a special place in my heart because this is the first wild edible I foraged for. Originally I had gotten one from a nursery to plant in front of our apartment complex for the local wildlife, but the more I researched this plant the more I became fascinated with it’s rich history as an wild edible and medicinal, among other uses. Here are some useful tips to consider when you decide to go foraging for elderberry.

Quick Facts

Botanical Name	Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea
Common Names	Common Elderberry, Mexican Elderberry
Family	Adoxaceae
Genus	Sambucus
Habitat	stream banks, swampy thickets, wet meadows, and open forests from low to middle elevations.
Flowering Season	Spring, Summer

Native Distribution & Habitat

Sunny, wet, well-drained areas are preferred by blue elderberry. As a result, it can be found as a several species in forested areas where it may survive in openings, in ravines, and alongside roads in drier habitat types, as well as as a riparian species in the Central Valley of California and in Arizona. It grows in the Northwest on open slopes and in valley bottoms with enough precipitation. It is the elderberry that grows most frequently along fence rows or in stream valleys in eastern Oregon and Washington. It can be found in Utah’s riparian, sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), mountain brush, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), aspen (Populus tremuloides), and spruce-fir (Picea engelmannii-Abies lasiocarpa) habitats.

River Ridge Ranch during autumn in the southern sierra nevada, where I found some elder not far from where this photo was taken.

Its range is more constrained when it is close to the edges. It only exists in the valley bottoms where the growing seasons are longer in southeast British Columbia and on Vancouver Island. It grows in valleys, at the bottom of cliffs, and by creeks in western Colorado. Locally occurring in riparian shrublands in the boreal regions of Arizona, it becomes more significant below 8,500 feet (2,591 m). Although their favored habitats overlap, blue elderberry is typically more prevalent on warmer sites than the closely related red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa).

Source: Wikipedia. Sambucus nigra subsp. “cerulea (blueberry elder) natural distribution map. Light blue shows Sambucus velutina.

What to Look For

Elderberry can either be a tree or large shrub

Stem & Branches

Twigs are soft and pithy. Each section comes out of a pair of nodes along each branch

Leaves

Blue Elderberry has opposite, relatively large, pinnately-divided compound leaves with 5-9, broadly lance-shaped, smooth, toothed leaflets.

Flowers

The clusters of many, flat-topped, white or creamy-colored blooms, which bloom from May to June, are typically 5–20 cm (2–8 in). They have an umbel form and often have four or five rays that radiate from the base.

Berries

The fruits are drupes, which resemble berries. They have a diameter of roughly 4-6 mm, are spherical, and are delicious. Their bluish-black color is enhanced by a glaucous powder covering that gives them a powdered blue hue and helps set them apart from other elderberries. Three to five tiny, seed-like stones, each encasing a single seed, are found inside each fruit.