Fruit

Guelder rose

Viburnum opulus L. · European cranberry bush, water elder, cramp bark · Polish: Kalina koralowa

Edible with care

Photo: Johann Georg Sturm (Painter: Jacob Sturm) / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

How to identify it

Leaves bluntly lobed, with three (less often five) lobes.
Flowers in flat-topped clusters: the outer ones large (15–25 mm) and sterile, the central ones small (May–July).
Berries scarlet, glossy drupes 8–10 mm, in drooping clusters; they ripen in August–September and stay on the shrub for a long time.

Where it grows

Damp or at least moist woodland and scrub.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

Frozen or heat-treated berries lose their bitterness; traditionally they were picked after the frosts for syrups, and also for jellies, marmalades, nalewki and as a filling for pierogi.

Caution Raw berries (containing the glycoside viburnin) are harmful in large amounts, especially to children — they can cause, among other things, dilated pupils and acute inflammation of the digestive tract. Once processed, especially boiled, the berries are harmless. Legal status: guelder rose was partially protected under the 2012 regulation (Dz.U. 2012 poz. 81), but it is no longer in the 2014 regulation (Dz.U. 2014 poz. 1409) — it is not currently protected.