Right now the elderflower reigns supreme as Queen of the hedgerow as she decorates the land in clouds of white blooms. Elder truly lives up to its name ‘the people’s medicine chest’ as each part has some use or other for humans or animals alike.
Juliette de Bairacli Levy calls elder ‘one of the greatest of all herbs’ and I could not agree more. She goes on to inform us, ‘it is sacred to the gypsies who will not burn it as wood in their fires: they declare that a tree which can help all the ailments of mankind and can restore sight to the blind, is too precious to burn.’
Elderflower is famous as a wild food but it is not only delicious in cordials, champagne and fritters but is also a fantastic medicine, being especially useful for any condition where there is congestion in the sinuses such as in hay fever, colds or sinusitis. It is diaphoretic, anti-inflammatory and anti-catarrhal and can be prepared as tea, tincture or a cold infusion like this one below.
To make a cold infusion of elderflower all you need to do is place a few heads of the flowers into a jug of fresh water, leave to infuse for a couple of hours and drink the heavenly yet delicately flavoured water throughout the day.
Elderflower is lovely in teas combined with nettle and rose for allergies, linden blossom for a relaxing floral brew or chamomile for a gentle anti-inflammatory effect. The classic cold and flu blend includes elderflower, peppermint and yarrow, all useful diaphoretic herbs.
When gathering elderflower for tea be sure to shake off any little black bugs as you do not want to wash the blossoms- they will loose all their pollen and delicious flavour. Also be sure to remove the flowers from the green stems which are emetic (i.e. can make you vomit) and taste unpleasant as a friend of mine recently discovered when making tea with the stalks still attached! If you are making the cold infusion you don’t need to worry about the stems as the cool temperature will not extract their properties or flavour.
Much like the berry, elderflower has also been shown to have a good anti-viral effect so can help treat colds and flus, not just by countering mucus or by provoking a sweat but by a direct effect on immune function as well. Culpepper was recommending elderflower to treat colds and flus back in the seventeenth century and its use as a folk medicine no doubt goes back many hundreds of years before his time.
Finally it is also wonderful in skin care recipes. Culpepper states ‘the distilled water of the flowers is of much use to clean the skin from sun-burning, freckles, morphew the like.’ Morphew is apparently a scurfy skin eruption. Juliette writes ‘Elder lotion is an old-fashioned but excellent treatment for the complexion and hair.’ You can read about some of the ways I use elderflowers in skin care in this post here from a couple of years ago.
Do you dry the elderflowers to make tea? Also, can you dry them and save to use throughout the year?
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Yes I dry them after removing them from the stems. Even though they are quite fragile I find they last well for the year as long as they are stored somewhere dry and away from light.
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Hi Lucinda,
My most favourite plant in the garden. I have so many growing here now I have lost count. I think the blooms are just beautiful, so frothy, and delicate looking. Of course, the berries, such a rich black, beautiful. It has been a wonderful Spring for the elder….I have never seen her looking more stunning than she does today……
I have never made a cold infusion with the flowers. I shall do that tomorrow.
Tku once again for all your lovely recommendations 🙂
BTW Cramp bark (new to me)….is that another name for elder of the guelder rose???
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Yes this year has been particularly good for elderflowers hasn’t it! They are looking so exuberant, I guess it’s all the intermittent rain and sun.
Cramp bark is indeed guelder rose, which is a much nicer name and one I try to remember to use. I get habituated with using cramp bark as it’s the common name we use in herbal medicine but of course refers only to the bark and it’s medicinal actions rather than to the whole plant!
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Lovely photos and info, Lucinda. Thank you so much for reminding me I wanted to try your elderflower and rose recipe! I had forgotten! Today Lily and Dylan were playing animal vets. They were using elderflower, chamomile, peppermint and lemon balm to “treat” their patients, which were their stuffed animals! lol!! big hugs and much love to you!
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That is so lovely! They obviously take after you in being wonderful animal healers. I’m sure their patients felt much better after those wonderful herbs. 🙂
Which reminds me that I must write about zoopharmacognasy soon, it was a wonderful couple of days and Caroline is very inspiring!
Lots of love to you all xxx
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Hi Lucinda, I have a question that I hope you can shed some light on! Living in Western Australia, obviously Elder is not a native plant and so you can imagine my delight when I found one for sale at my local nursery. I bought it and put it into a large pot (as we’re considering moving house this year and I wanted to take it with us). Surprisingly, the plant thrived all through our hot summer, though it’s looking a little scraggly now, in our Autumn/Winter. It bloomed beautifully too. But the flowers had no discernible scent, or flavour, and though I was very careful to leave plenty of flowers on the bush, no berries grew at all! Do you think that what I’ve got is a weird Australian cultivar, and that in the process of breeding to Australian conditions, all the reasons why one would actually want an Elder have accidently been bred out of it, or is it just to do with the maturity of the tree, and that given a few more years, it might start to actually behave like an Elder (It’s only a couple of feet tall at the moment)?
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Hi Christina,
Sorry for the delayed reply, I have just come back from holiday.
Elders don’t usually produce much in the way of fruit for the first 2 or 3 years so that is not unusual but if you have plenty of flowers I would have thought you would get some berries unless they haven’t been pollinated by the local insects for some reason. Do you have a label to say which variety it is? Did it say Sambucus nigra when you bought it or just elder? It could be a cultivar but most of the garden cultivars I know of still have some berries. I only know a few though so there may be many others. Do the leaves look like those of Sambucus nigra? There is also an American native, Sambucus canadensis which is said to be very productive.and looks similar. Let me know any more details you have or you could send me a picture and I will try to be more specific if I can.
A top tip from my Dad if insect pollination is the problem, is to gently brush over the flower heads with a very soft brush (like a blusher brush) to spread the pollen around.
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Hi Lucinda,
thanks so much for the info. The label stated that it was a Sambucus Nigra, which I understand is the one I was looking for. Pollination could be the problem though. Does it need to be cross-pollinated with another plant, or just between its own flowers, as I doubt whether there’s another Elder plant anywhere around this neighbourhood?!
thanks,
Christina
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Brilliant informative post on the wonderful Elder. Do you know if the black leaved Elder flowers have the same properties?
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Hi Bridget,
Do you mean the garden variety ‘black lace’? I have heard that the berries are fine to use so I imagine the flowers would be too but I have never had one myself to taste the difference. It’s a beautiful plant though isn’t it, one that is on my wish list for when I have a bigger garden!
Sorry I can’ give you more details.
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Love your posts Lucinda – I learn something new with each one! Didn’t know that elderflowers can be used to make a tea, it sounds like a delicious way to treat allergies.
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They are very tasty and refreshing at this time of year.
Thanks for your comment. x
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I love those photos Lucinda, beautiful!
I have two branches that are rooted, ready to plant in autumn. I hope they grow fast, very fast 🙂
XXX
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How wonderful, I wish you many happy harvests for years to come.
xx
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So strongly agree. Both elder flowers and the infusions made from them are simply beautiful and wonderful. 🙂
Michael
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They are lovely aren’t they, such a delightfully subtle taste and fragrance.
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Lovely, lovely. I just love that photo of the elder cold infusion – I can’t explain why I do, but I can just smell and taste it and it makes me so happy 🙂
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I have just finished a cup of your delicious Breathe tea as I write this so am also infused with elderflower and berry goodness thanks to you. 🙂
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Hi Lucinda, thank you for reminding me that now is the time to go forth and collect elderflowers and for teaching me how to make a cold infusion from them as I’ve not tried this before. My lady elder has just put on her first flowers since I transplanted her into her new home but I’m going ot leave these to turn to berries and collect from the hedgerows. Your posts are always so beautiful as well as so informative! warm wishes x
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Thanks Steph. It’s good to collect from the hedgerows isn’t it as you can ensure you never take too many from one plant.
I do still wish I had room for some elders in my garden though! xx
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