Among the most-loved native trees, with fragrant flower heads and ingredients for delicious country produce, Elder is also tough and adaptable, growing on almost any soil except strongly acidic, from waste ground and railway sidings to damp woodland and dense hedgerows. Also called Common Elder, European Elder, Elderberry or Black Elder.

Native to all of western Europe except Scandinavia, east into Russia, and south-east through Turkey and the Balkans to Iran and Iraq. In Britain and Ireland it is very widely distributed, absent only from the highest Scottish Highlands.

Monoecious, producing hermaphrodite flowers in wide corymbs. Insect-pollinated. Seeds distributed by birds and frugivorous mammals, especially Badgers (Meles meles), feeding on its fruits.

Small (10-12m), typically multi-stemmed with fast-growing, arching stems. Bark pale fawn, soon deeply corky-furrowed. Twigs grey-brown, stout, with prominent warty lenticels and a soft pith that decays quickly when cut; buds opposite, loose-scaled, turning green before flushing. Foliage often appears early (February-March), risking spring frost damage. Leaves compound pinnate, large (10-30cm), with (3-)5(-7) ovate, sharply serrate, foetid-smelling leaflets, with extrafloral nectaries at the leaf and leaflet stalks. Flower heads cream-white, in flat 12-20cm umbels, strongly sweet-scented, May-June. Fruit black globose drupes (6-8mm) on red stalks, hanging in grape-like clusters (toxic raw), August-September. Dwarf Elder differs: herbaceous, dying back each autumn.

Elder needs little human help to thrive, even resisting Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), so it is often found near warrens, and can even grow as an epiphyte in old tree hollows. Typically short-lived (30 years), though coppicing rejuvenates older trees. It can grow in small clearings within dark conifer plantations but is usually spindly there, needing full sun to flower well. Cultivars include Parsley-leaved Elder f. laciniata and Golden Elder 'Aurea'.

Its flowers attract many invertebrates, especially hoverflies and beetles, and its berries draw birds including Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Blackbird (Turdus merula) and Song Thrush (T. philomelos). Extrafloral nectaries attract ants that, in turn, keep leaf-eating caterpillars at bay. The distinctive Jelly-ear fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae) is ubiquitous on its stems.

None.

Flower sprays are traditionally made into homemade 'champagne' or commercial cordial. The berries are poisonous to humans raw but, cooked with sugar, are a traditional cough and cold remedy. Hollowed stems once made children's pea-shooters. Its timber, rarely available in large sizes, is surprisingly tough with a pale, smooth, horn-like texture, popular in turnery.