Plant · P-463

Blue Elderberry

Sambucus nigra subsp. caerulea

Blue elderberry is the western North American elder, native from British Columbia south through California and east into Montana, Texas and Mexico, and considered the best-flavored of the continent's native elders. All parts of the plant except the fully ripe fruit are poisonous, so the berries and flowers only get used cooked, dried or preserved - never raw. It can be kept pruned as a large shrub or let grow into a small tree up to fifty feet, and a fruiting plant draws almost as much wildlife as a crop, feeding birds, bears, deer, elk and moose. It spreads by root suckers into large colonies, which is exactly what makes it useful as a hedge or a streambank stabilizer if it is given a hard annual cut.