Since prehistoric times, plants have accompanied men in their daily activities. As a shrub on the edge of the human habitat, the elder has many facets. Nourishing, medicinal, utilitarian, artistic, it was once linked to the protective or evil forces of nature.
A close companion
A familiar silhouette, the black elder, Sambucus nigra, can be seen in open hedges, in the back of gardens, along paths. A guest of ruins, of abandoned houses with collapsed roofs, a lover of nitrogen-rich soil, it follows man in his daily life. Close by its habitat, this shrub is also close by its uses. Its large trays of tiny white flowers, its long hollow stems in sprays, its short, thick, tortuous trunk; but also its malodorous foliage, its marked bark, and its small dark fruits; everything in it is used. From time immemorial, men have appreciated its multiple properties, with caution, sometimes with concern, in the right dose, to avoid possible toxicities. They have also learned not to confuse it with the heathy elder, Sambucus ebulus, a toxic herb.
Elderberry recipes
In mid-spring, elderberry inflorescences bloom. Known for lemonade, the flowers are macerated in the sun in water with sugar, lemon, vinegar, they will compose a pleasant sparkling drink. Cooked with sugar, a little agar-agar, they will be tasted in translucent jelly. Soaked in dough, they will resemble the more famous acacia fritters.
At the end of summer, elderberries are harvested. Raw, and not very mature, they are purgative and vomiting. Ripe, cooked with sugar or honey, they will be used to prepare the elderberry rob, half jam half syrup, very old recipe, with a particular taste. They also take part in the grenadine syrup, alongside raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries, lemon. And if flowers and berries were not enough, the very young shoots were also consumed, cooked in several waters they appeared at the sides of the "vegetable herbs". Their medicinal properties made the recipe look like a doctor's prescription.
Medicinal properties
The elderberry lists many medicinal properties, from the leaves, to the flowers, to the fruits, to the inner bark, it concentrates for a single shrub many active substances. To use with precautions, and right dosages, the intoxications being real. Any use of medicinal plants requires wise advice, elderberry reminds it by the diversity of its actions, different according to the parts of the plant used, their state, fresh, dry, cooked. As an indication, and the list is far from being complete, the elder is purgative, diuretic, sudorific, antirheumatic, pectoral, dermatological, analgesic, healing; the infusion of the dry flowers is used as eyewash. The uses are internal, teas or decoctions, external, in cataplasm. Simply, and without risk, the crumpled sheets are used to alleviate the punctures.
Uses of elderberry
The gardener will find in the elder leaf purin a precious ally to repel bugs, aphids, caterpillars, mealy bugs, small mammals, voles and moles. It will take advantage of the anti-fungal properties of the dried flowers to preserve the apples, with a pleasant side effect of transmitting a little pineapple taste. The same flowers, harvested in corymbs and dried whole in spring, will act as an anti-germinant for potatoes. The wood craftsmen will forsake its brittle, hollow stems, but will appreciate the old wood of the trunk, hard, dense, fine, used in other times by the turners and the table makers. And if the pith of the branches is still used for microscopic preparations, the children of the bush extracted it to recover long hollow tubes, with multiple vocations, flutes or blowpipes.
The shrub of artists
Elderberry is a musical plant that can be transformed in a few minutes into a flute, a kazoo or a whistle. Its branches are stripped of their soft internal marrow and the tube thus obtained, with bevelled notch, membrane, tricks of musician of the bushes, becomes the desired instrument. Or the bird call, to attract birds. Equipped with a piston at its end, the elder whistle modulates its song, the thrush misunderstands it... Another use of the hollow stem of the elder, appreciated by the children, the blowpipe, but also the firecracker or the water syringe. Plant games, forgotten in the corners of old hedges.
For the artist writer, the elderberry will offer the ink extracted from its small black fruits. Crushed, macerated, mixed with tea, alum and gum arabic, reduced, these fruits on paper have nuances to discover. Fabrics will also benefit from these dyeing properties, although the elderberry, Sambucus ebulus, seems more suitable.
Some stories...
The nocturnal perfume of elder flowers, appreciated or not, is irresistible, makes you lose your senses...
Judas was hanged in an elder tree, after which the fruits would have become bitter.
In the Middle Ages in the Pyrenees, one had to climb an elder tree to summon the devil.
Harry Potter's wand is made of elderberry.
To cut a branch to make a wand or a magic flute, one had to wait for the bells to ring, the demons being afraid of their sound.
So many regions, so many stories and legends in the imagination of men. The elder, a shrub with many faces, was rather beneficial and protective in the northern countries, more ambiguous, even evil, in the western regions.
Few plants offer as many uses as the elder. And then it settles willingly near human habitats, grows vigorously. It offers shelter and cover to birds, insects and spiders, promoting a welcome biodiversity. It is even said that fairies take refuge there, disappointed by the World...
