🧃 The hedge that moved into rows

Missouri’s Department of Conservation keeps a field guide to everything that grows in the state, and its entry for the common elderberry is short and blunt. What it is: a “Native Missouri shrub.” Where to find it: “Common statewide.” Then the list of places it turns up, which is the interesting part — “bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, banks of streams and rivers, margins of ponds, lakes, and sinkhole ponds, and upland prairies; also in pastures, old fields, gardens, railroads, roadsides, and disturbed areas.” Railroads. Roadsides. Disturbed areas. This is a plant of the edges — the strip nobody mows, the ditch by the tracks. It builds itself into patches rather than standing alone: the guide describes “a shrub to 8 feet tall, forming colonies from root sprouts.” Its flowers come out in “late May–July” in flat white clusters “sometimes up to 10 inches across,” and the fruit follows from “August–October,” each berry “about ¼ inch across, smooth, glossy, bittersweet.” Plenty of things are waiting for those berries. USDA’s plant fact sheet for the same shrub says “At least 50 species of songbirds, upland game birds, and small mammals relish the fruit of American elder during summer and early fall” — and it mentions, almost in passing, that there are “about 230,000 seeds per pound.” The same fact sheet says what happens next: “Seed dispersal occurs from July to October, usually through vigorous ingestion by birds and mammals.” That is how a plant of the edges travels without anybody carrying it.

Basis: Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide, “Common Elderberry” (Sambucus canadensis), sections Description, Status, and Habitat and Conservation; USDA NRCS Plant Materials Program, Plant Fact Sheet, “American Elder — Sambucus nigra L. ssp. canadensis (L.) R. Boli,” sections Uses and Description. Quotations unchanged.

Here is the part a kid should know before touching one. The Missouri guide files this plant under both headings at once — “Both poisonous and edible” — and explains which is which: “The stems, leaves, and roots are poisonous, and ingestion can cause vomiting and diarrhea.” A sentence later, the edible half: “The flowers and ripe, cooked fruits are edible.” It repeats the rule further down, and adds the reason: “Many parts of elderberry are toxic, and only the berries and flowers are considered edible, if prepared correctly. Proper preparation of the berries breaks down the toxins. It is best to work from proven recipes rather than experiment with the plant.” Even the ripe fruit is not a grab-and-eat berry: “Fresh elderberries have a bittersweet or tart flavor and should not be eaten raw, especially in large quantities.” Alabama’s extension service names the substance — “parts of the elderberry plant can contain toxins called cyanogenic glycosides, which are also found in small amounts in foods such as almonds, sweet cherries, and cassava” — and gives growers the same rule in one line: “Only consume products made from elderflower and fully ripe berries. Avoid ingesting leaves, stems, roots, and unripe berries.” And there is a second danger that has nothing to do with the elderberry itself: several plants look like it. That guide’s table of look-alikes includes poison hemlock and water hemlock, both described as a “Highly toxic plant in the carrot (Apiaceae) family that can cause death when ingested” with white umbrella-shaped flowers that “may superficially resemble elderflower to a casual observer,” plus pokeweed, whose “Deep purple berries may resemble elderberries.” Hence the flat instruction: “Always obtain cuttings from a reputable source and positively identify elderberry before propagation and harvest.” The lesson is not that elderberry is scary. It is that a plant is not one thing — it has parts, and stages, and doubles.

Basis: Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide, “Common Elderberry,” sections Status and Human Connections; Alabama Cooperative Extension System, “American Elderberry: Commercial Production Guide” (10 July 2024), sections Look-Alikes (including Table 1) and Uses and Safety. Quotations unchanged.

So how does a hedge plant become a crop? Somebody has to pick out particular bushes and copy them. Alabama’s guide is direct about it: “Choose named cultivars for commercial production, as wild-type elderberries, while excellent for wildlife plantings, are less financially viable as a crop,” and it names some, with a hedge of its own: “More research is required, but Alabama growers might try cultivars selected in warm weather climates such as ‘Pocahontas’ and ‘Wyldewood’, as well as industry standards such as ‘Ranch’ and ‘Bob Gordon’.” Those are not species. A named cultivar is a particular selected plant that growers multiply from cuttings instead of raising from seed, which is why the guide tells beginners to “buy unrooted, dormant cuttings from reliable suppliers.” Where each of those named plants was first picked out, this guide does not say. The same guide opens by naming the shift itself: “Progress in elderberry breeding and management research has opened new possibilities for Alabama farmers to grow this historically consumed wild plant as a commercial crop.” Missouri’s conservation department describes the result in its own state — “A number of Missourians are now cultivating elderberries as a specialty crop, producing syrups, jellies, and wine” — and explains why the jars cost what they cost: “Elderberry products command high prices because of the labor involved in harvesting only the ripe berries from the clusters and then in separating the juicy pulp from the many seeds.” One bush, two harvests, too: “A secondary product comes from the flowers, which are used to make a fragrant, sweet syrup.” Flowers in early summer, berries in late summer, from the same plant.

Basis: Alabama Cooperative Extension System, “American Elderberry: Commercial Production Guide” (10 July 2024), sections Cultivars, Site Preparation and Planting, and the introduction; Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide, “Common Elderberry,” section Human Connections. Quotations unchanged.