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RE: Elderberry (was 'poisonous flowers')

Afraid I couldn't read Michael's attachment on elderberries, but I can 
provide a few observations about the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra) 
based on personal experience.

I've used these elderberries for many years to make elderberry wine, after 
stripping the berries from the stalks. The only ill effects that I have 
ever suffered from drinking it relate to the alcohol content! When I make 
it sweet and fortify it with vodka, it is a very good approximation to 
port, and keeps for years in the bottle (if I can resist the temptation to 
drink it for that long). However, the elderberries have a very high level 
of tannin in the skins, so the wine does not suit all tastes (just as many 
red wines do not). My wife has also made elderberry jelly, which has a much 
stronger flavour and deeper colour than any other similar preserves. 
Blackcurrant jelly seems pale and mild-flavoured in comparison. The birds 
remove all the berries that we do not pick for our own use.

As far as the leaves are concerned, our sheep and goats eat and enjoy them 
without suffering any ill effects, but have never had large quantities to 
my knowledge, so it probably doesn't prove anything about toxicity.

Elder flower wine is an old English country recipe. I have never tried 
making a flower wine, so do not know what this would be like.

Sambucus nigra grows VERY well under the spreading branches of our 
Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey cypress). I keep finding new seedlings right 
next to the trunk, where there is a lot less light (the tree has a spread 
of around 30 metres) and I would have thought less nutrient through 
competition with the cypress roots. Perhaps it revels in the litter of old 
cypress foliage that has collected there over the last 80 years. The best 
elderberries in the area grow under this tree.

Tim Dutton
"Raindrops", Main Road North, Kaitoke, Upper Hutt, New Zealand
(Latitude 41? 5' South, Longitude 175? 10' East)
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