Fruit

Elderberries

Sambucus nigra L. · elder, black elder, European elder · Polish: Bez czarny (owoce)

Edible with care

Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

How to identify it

Fruit: small drupes, purple-black when ripe, in large, drooping flat-topped clusters; each contains 3–6 seeds.
Pith of the shoots white (in red-berried elder it is cinnamon-coloured).
The berries ripen from late August to October.

Where it grows

Woodland and scrub, in the mountains up to the lower montane forest belt; prefers fertile soils rich in nitrogen and phosphorus.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

Pick only ripe, black berries (best in September), with no green berries and as few stalks as possible. The berries must be heat-treated: juice, syrup, preserves, jams, kissel (thickened fruit dessert), wine, nalewka (fruit liqueur).

Caution Raw and unripe berries, leaves, bark and seeds contain sambunigrin (a cyanogenic glycoside). Eating raw or unripe berries can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; 11 people fell ill after drinking juice made from raw berries, leaves and twigs. Cooking removes the poisonous properties (hydrogen cyanide is volatile), so always process elderberries before eating. A 2021 review notes that cooking is only partly effective — all the more reason to discard green berries and stalks.