The Elder Sambucus nigra is common in hedgerows and woodland, and appears as a shrub as often as a tree.  It has strongly scented blossoms in spring, deep purple berries in autumn, and pale wood.

There’s an enormous amount of folklore associated with this species, and it’s a firm favourite with both foragers and those interested in herbal remedies.

Identification: Tree shape

Elder grows as trees up to 10m, or as shrubs.  Branches are often curved, and the wood is brittle.  Elder trees have short trunks or “boles”.  Compared to other tree species, elder don’t have loads of branches, and these grow from low down.

Elder tree

You often see Elder trees in thickets or scrubby woodland, or growing alongside streams with a variety of other species.  If an Elder is given space and light, it’ll grown into a tree.

Elder shrubs are common too as the species shows in both growth habits.  Lots of branches emerge at ground level, forming a thicket of a bush.

This species loves nitrogen-rich habitats, and will colonise anywhere where people have lived, or where nitrogen levels are high in the soil (such as fields where animals have been grazed).  It grows fast, and establishes itself quickly.  If you see a tree growing from a wall or in a farmyard, it’s very likely to be an Elder.

Identification: Leaves

Elder leaves are compound, that is made of lots of leaflets (for more on leaf shape, check out my blog).  In this case, there are 5 to 7 leaflets, with one terminal leaflet.  Leaflets are opposite each other.  Although the leaves have a relatively long stalk, each individual leaflet lies close to the stem.  Each leaflet is 3 to 9 cm long.

Elder leaf and pencil study

The leaves of Elder are oval and a bright pale green.  They’re toothed along the margins. (Click here for my blog on leaf veins and margins).

Elder branch with two compound leaves (each made of five leaflets)

The venation of the leaves isn’t very obvious, and is rather similar to that of lots of other oval leaves.  Side veins branch from the central mid-rib, and are mostly opposite one another.

Elder leaves

Some people think Elder leaves smell nasty, and although they do let off a pungent odour when bruised, I wouldn’t call it unpleasant.

Identification: Flowers

The creamy froth of elder flowers is instantly recognizable, by smell as well as by sight.  The smell is a heady perfume, and one of my favourite scents of summer.

Flowers cover the tree or shrub, borne in flat-headed umbels. Each umbel is 10 to 20 cm across; individual flowers are 5mm across.  Looking into the branching structure, you can see there are five main rays to each umbel.

Sketchbook study figuring out flower growth pattern

The flowers are closely packed, and have cream or white petals.  Anthers are a creamy colour too.  Each individual flower has five rounded petals, and 5 stamens.  Anthers protrude beyond the petals, helping the umbel look even frothier.

Small flies pollinate the flowers, which may explain why the scent of the blossom is so heady and heavy.  Elderflowers appear in May or June and will be in flower for 4 to 6 weeks.

Individual elder flowers

Identification: Fruit

Elderberries are shiny and black when fully ripe.  The branches they’re borne on are frequently flushed dark magenta.  Unripe berries are crimson.  Each berry is square-ish, and very juicy.

Sketchbook study of elder berries

It’s really common to see elder berries in partial umbels – lots of the berries will have fallen off or been eaten; the remainders look scruffy because of the empty stalks along side them.  They last well into late autumn, eventually shrivelling or falling in the frosts.

Working on an elderberry illustration

The berries are very rich in vitamin A and C and provide a vital food supply for birds and small mammals.  However, they are also quite sour, and both leaves and berries are rich in Hydrogen cyanide.  This can cause vomiting in people.  For a fascinating look at poisons in our everyday foods, check out this BBC Future article I stumbled on.

Identification: Bark

The bark of an elder tree is thick, smooth and corky; deep ridges develop with age. The branches are smooth, with pithy insides.  This pith can be removed to leave a hollow twig, and elder wood has been used for centuries to make whistles and musical instruments.

Twigs have obvious lenticels and are thick and greyish, or greenish.

The jelly ear fungus Auricularia judae is a brownish jelly-like fungus that often grows on elder and I use it as another way to identify the species.

Similar species

Some other tree species also have frothy white blossoms.  The Rowan does, but the flowers are far less scented, and the tree rarely grows as a shrub.  Guelder rose also has panicles of white flowers, but these are much larger blossoms and the leaves are a totally different shape.  The berries are orange and scarlet, never black.  However, as Guelder rose also forms a shrub, it’s worth a mention.

Guelder rose Viburnum opulus

Ash Fraxinus excelsior, Walnut Juglans regia, and Rowan Sorbus aucuparia  also have compound leaves, but the walnut leaves are arranged in an alternate pattern.  Ash leaves have more obvious veins and feel less “flat” than elder.  Rowan leaves are smaller and sharper.  All have toothed margins, but with a little experience you’ll notice differences between the shape and sharpness of the teeth.

Ash twig and leaves Fraxinus excelsior

History: Folklore

Like Hawthorn and Rowan, Elder is alive with folklore and history.  It’s interesting that all three of these trees produce highly visible white blossoms and distinctive colourful berries.  I guess they were easily recognized, common, and therefore very much in people’s awareness for millenia.

Elder has long been associated with “the little people”, and those who believe in faery folk will be very familiar with it.  If you were lucky, you might see the Queen of the Fairies passing by under an elder on Midsummer eve.  Lots of references advise against sleeping under an elder; this also relates to belief in other-worldly peoples.

Elder shrub

If you had to chop down an elder tree, you were supposed to ask permission from the Elder mother, a female spirit that inhabited the tree.

It was seen as a protective tree, and would be planted near houses and dairies.  Cheese cloths would be hung to dry on elder branches, and it was thought to prevent the milk form turning.  Interestingly, the elder leaves do repel flies, so these beliefs could have contributed to the hygiene of the dairy.  Herdsmen would carry elder switches.

Elder berries and leaves

However, there was a darker side.  A child beaten with an elder stick would never grow.  Judas Iscariot was said to have hung himself from an elder tree, and criminals were crowned with elder as a symbol of their shame.  Again on a Christian theme, there was a suggestion that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was elder wood.  It was not to be brought into the house, and if you burnt it you were sure to see the devil.  Witches could transform themselves into Elder.

The rule of thumb was to treat the elder with a healthy dose of respect.  And caution.

History: Food

The flowers of the elder can be used to make a lovely scented champagne, or fried as fritters.

Once heated, the berries can be reduced into deliciously strong-flavoured jams and jellies and syrups.

Illustrating elder berries

Flowers and berries are made into drinks and cordials.  Until 1900 you could buy spiced elderberry wine in the streets of London.

The most famous elder drink is the spirit Sambucca, made from elder berries and aniseed.  Traditionally, this is presented with one coffee bean and is set on fire as it’s served.

History: Medicine

Most parts of the elder have been used for medicine.  There’s some suggestion that even the ancient Egyptians used elderberries medicinally.  The medieval herbalist John Evelyn described elder as, “a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever”.

Berries are high in vitamins C and A, and (once you’ve destroyed the hydrogen cyanide by heating) are used to cure a plethora of conditions.  Sore-throats, coughs, respiratory problems – all were treated with elderberry syrup or “rob”.  They’re also a laxative, and diuretic.

The bark is a strong purgative.  Leaves can be crushed into poultices that are applied to bruises, sprains, and chill-blains.

Flowers are dried into tea and used to treat colds.  You can also wash your face in water soaked with elderflower to preserve your youthful looks.  Even today, elderflower is used in eye and skin lotions.  Some say that if you soak elderflower in cold water it helps relieve symptoms of hay-fever.

Adele Nozedar, whose books I illustrate, foraging for elderberries

Elder is rich in anthocyanins and antioxidants, both of which are known to boost the immune system.

Uses

There is a lot of pith in elder branches, which means when you hollow them out they make good musical instruments.  Children made small toys and penny whistles from elder wood.  The wood was also used to make pipes, pea-shooters and bellows.  Small spoons, and combs were sometimes made from elder wood.

The pith was used as a blotter, and to hold botanical specimens whilst they were being prepared for microscope slides or botanical sections.

Elder berries and leaves

Harder mature elder wood was sometimes made into cogs for machines.

The leaves contain natural fly repellent which probably explains why they were so often planted near houses and stables.

Finally, the elder is really useful as it produces a whole variety of different dyes.  The leaves give a green hue, flowers produce a lilac colour.  The berries make for deep and fade-resistant black and purples.  And even the bark was used to make black dye, used either for dying wool or ones hair.  The highly esteemed Harris tweed used elder to dye its’ materials, even though elder trees are less common in northern Scotland than in the rest of the UK.

Elder: Wildlife

The berries are eaten by birds and mammals, and the leaves are food for the Buff ermine, dot, White-spotted pug, and Swallow-tail moth caterpillars.  Insects drink the nectar from the flowers.  Voles and dormice eat flowers and berries.

Field vole Microtus agrestis

Threats

Luckily, not too many things threaten this amazing tree.  Red spider mites can suck the sap of the tree, and blackfly damage leaves.

Conclusion

Elder is an extraordinarily adaptable plant.  It’s been associated with Jesus, witches and fairies.  It can bring good or bad luck.  Berries are poisonous but can be made into delicious syrups.  The flowers can be eaten, used as a beauty treatment, or used against colds.  Elder wood makes toys, cogs, and instruments.  Personally, what I love most about elder is the smell when the flowers are out.  The buzzing of flies, the heavy scent in the air, and the rustle of leaves in a gentle breeze.  It sums up summer for me.

Jersey Post Fruits and Berries stamp issue copyright Jersey Post 2019

Online sources for this blog include websites of The Woodland Trust, Trees for life, and Naturespot.  Book references for this blog include Adele Nozedar’s The Tree Forager, the excellent The Greenwood Trees by Christina Hart-Davies, and the Reader’s Digest “The Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain” (out of print but commonly available second-hand).

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This chart of flowers of walks and the wayside shows a wide variety of different flower shapes.  Here’s how we go about naming some of them…

First, we have to accept the amazing variety of form.  So what causes this variety?  Flower shape depends on how the segments of the perianth (sepals and petals) are arranged, and what shape they are.

I need to give a caveat before setting out.  There is an enormous amount of variation between definitions of flower shape.  Different botanists use different terms.  They may choose from only a handful of shape definitions, or from an enormous selection.  Many of the definitions seem to be almost inter-changeable.  I’ve done my best to try and untangle some of these contradictions, but please do get in touch in the comments section if you spot glaring errors!

Flower symmetry

The first thing to consider is the axis of symmetry.  Does the flower have bilateral symmetry?  Does it have a clear top and bottom, with two similar sides?  If you cut it in half would both sides be mirror images?  This is known as Zygomorphic symmetry.  Violets show this form.

If a flower is radially symmetrical, then you can cut it in half anywhere and the halves will be identical.  It’s a little like the idea of cutting a cake into two equal parts.  This is referred to as being Actinomorphic.  Most flowers show this symmetry; cranesbills and daisies, forget-me-nots, roses, and borage flowers.

For more on flower symetry, check out the blog from Orbis Environment.

Early dog violet Viola reichenbachiana with several flowers showing Zygomorphic symmetry

Dog rose Rosa canis showing Actinomorphic symmetry

Flower shapes: How to approach these terms

There’s no pretty way to do this, except by working through each botanical term one by one. Brace yourselves, there are about eighteen of these terms to get through!

Cyanthiform

First up is Cyanthiform.  A Cyanthiform flower is shaped like a cup of a bowl.  It has radial or actinomorphic symmetry.  The petals curve upwards, forming the bowl shape.

Buttercups have Cyanthiform flowers.

Cruciform

Cruciform flowers have four petals, and are cross-like.  They have Actinomorphic symmetry.  Many flowers have this form, although often they’re little white numbers that we might overlook.

the Bedstraw family all have little white Cruciform flowers.

Crateriform

Crateriform flowers are similar in shape to Cyanthiform ones.  To be honest, I couldn’t find any online reference which made any difference between the two clear.  Perhaps it relates to petal number?  Or maybe the terms are inter-changable?

In any case, Crateriform flowers are bowl shaped, rather like a saucer.  They show actinomorphic symmetry.

A good example of a Crateriform flower is the poppy.  In this case, I’m using the California poppy.

California poppy Eschscholzia californica

Coronate

Coronate flowers are easy, it’s rather a relief.  Any flower which is crown-like, and looks like a daffodil is coronate.  I can’t think of many flowers that do take on this form, except for the masses of variety of Narcissus and our spring daffs.

Wild daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Campanulate

Another easy one.  Campanulate means bell-shaped, or bell-like.  In fact, all the bell flowers are campanulate.  That’s why their family is called the Campanulaceae!  Although they have a longer corolla tube or throat, they’re still radially symmetrical.  Campanulate flowers are actinomorphic.  A good example of a campanulate flower is the harebell

Harebell Campanula rotundifolia

Calceolate

Calceolate flowers are very distinctive, and it’s an uncommon shape.  The term translates from the latin as shoe-like, or slipper-like.  The only examples of calceolate flowers I can think of are the slipper orchids, none of which I’ve illustrated.  Calceolate flowers are bilaterally symmetrical, so they are zygomorphic.

Urceolate

Urceolate flowers are like little urns or vessels, facing down.  They have neat petals at the top and a rounded corolla tube.  They’re actinomorphic.  The heather are a great example of urceolate flowers, especially the bell heather.  Another good example is the blueberry, and the Strawberry tree.

Tubulate

Another self-explanatory term.  Tubulate flowers are like little tubes.  Their petals don’t splay out at the top of the tube.  An example of a tubulate bloom is the Cigar flower.  You may not be surprised to hear I’ve not illustrated this species.

Stellate

Stellate flowers are interesting.  They’re star shaped, and radially symmetrical.  But the most interesting thing about these actinomorphic blooms is that they consist of tepals, not petals.  “What”, I hear you cry “is a tepal!?”  Some flowers have sepals and petals which are so similar as to be almost identical.  In many flowers, the sepals are very different from the flowers, and mostly green.

With stellate flowers such as lilies, the onion family, and tulips this is not so.  The sepals are as brightly coloured as the petals, and are often indistinguishable.  You can only tell them apart by seeing where they attach to the centre of the flower.  It’s easier to refer to both the sepals and the petals as tepals.

Three cornered leek Allium triquetrum

Salverform

Salverform flowers are shaped like a long tube, and have a flattened disc of petals at the top.  There’s not much curving of the petals, so the face of a salverform flower is pretty flat.  Plumbago is the example given by many of my references, but I’ve not illustrated that.

Salverform flowers are antinomorphic, posessing radial symmetry.

Saccate

Yet another of these flower shapes that I’ve not illustrated.  Saccate flowers have their basal coralla area extended and swollen, like a bag.  The corolla is fused into a tube.  The distinctive bulge is always on the lower side of the flower.

Saccate flowers are zygomorphic, or bilaterally symmetrical.  Unfortunately, the only example I could find was the Nemathus.  Alas, it;s another plant I haven’t yet illustrated.

Rotate

Rotate flowers are very common.  However, their distinctive characteristic is that the petals aren’t fused together, or if fused it’s a very short tube. No corolla tubes or fusing.  Clearly, rotate flowers are actinomorphic. Tomato  flowers are rotate.

I’m going to admit to a background level of confusion here.  Different sources have different opinions on what species show a rotate form.  I’m erring on the side of caution, and leaving the tomato as our sample flower.  Unfortunately, it’s another species I’ve not illustrated!

Papilionaceaous

We’re back onto safer ground with a papilionaceous flower form.  These are said to resemble butterflies, hence the name.  They’re zygomorphic as they show bilateral symmetry.  A papilionaceaous flower is easy to spot.  All the vetches and the pea family show this flowering shape.

Bitter vetch Lathyrus linifolius

Ligulate

It’s another easy one to explain.  A ligule is the strap-like petal found on the ray florets of the Compositae.  So a plant having a ligulate flower form is one that resembles a daisy.  Outer ray-like petals are the order of the day.  Ligulate flowers are actinomorphic.

The clearest example of a ligulate flower form is the daisy.

African daisy Gerbera

Labiate and Bilabiate

Labiate flowers have lips, or are lipped.  The flowers look like a throat with an upper an lower lip, resembling a mouth  They tend to have long, fused corolla tubes with an enlarged lower lip.  Labiate flowers show bilateral or zygomorphic symmetry.

Bilabiate flowers have two lips.  These are often fused at their bases.  All the mint family (Lamiaceae) have bilabiate flowers.

There’s rather a good link if you want to know more about labiate flower form, from Orbis consulting.

Catnip Nepeta cataria

Galeate

Galeate flowers are hooded, or helmeted.  Like the labiate flower forms, they have a clear lower lip.  The main distinction is the obvious hood over the top of the flower.  This is called a galea.  Think of a dead nettle or monkshood (the clue’s in the name!).

Lousewort also have a galeate form.

Lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica

In my illustration the hood is less pronounced than it might be.

Funnelform

Another easy one to end with.  Funnelform flowers look a whole lot like a funnel.  The flower shape widens slowly from the base, into a trumpet or funnel shape.  Like many of the other flower shapes, funnelform blooms are actinomorphic.

The most obvious examples of funnelform flowers are the Convulvulus, like the morning glory below.

Morning glory Ipomoea purpurea

Flower shapes: An overview and conclusion

Now we’ve gone through each shape one by one, here they all all together on one sheet:

My main references for this blog were The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms by Michael Hickey and Clive King, and Kew Plant Glossary by Henk Beentje.

There are loads of websites on this topic, all with slightly different terms.  A good one is the Flowers on India site, and the Seed site.  It can be useful to have an online dictionary of botanical terms to refer to, the Wikipedia dictionary of botanical terms is pretty exhaustive, and the Florabase glossary is a good resource.

The main thing to bear in mind, as your head spins with the variety of flower shapes, is what it’s all for.  The diversity and beauty of these structures comes down to pollination, and attracting pollinators to a flower.  As Candace Galan states in the article “Why do Flowers vary? “Nearly all botanists give animal pollinators credit for the vast smorgasbord of flower shapes and sizes observed in nature.”  However, as she point out, other environmental factors are also involved, as are a plant’s enemies and the costs of producing these amazing flowers.

For more of my blogs on plant morphology and botanical terms, click the link.

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