Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Elderberries begin life as small white flowers held by the hundreds in flat clusters called corymbs, the blossoms eventually become deep purple fruits which when ripe are devoured by birds and mammals. The plant itself is large and rough-textured, growing well over six feet tall and with an equal spread in moist, rich soils. The exterior wood is very strong but has a pithy interior –this featured made dried, hollow elderberry stems valuable for Native Americans who fashioned them into flutes, blow guns, and tubes driven into maple trees to drain sap. When the pith interior decays in dead plant material, numerous beneficial solitary wasps that use those hollow spaces for egg laying, packing the stem’s interior with paralyzed insects or spiders where they they lay their eggs which safely complete their development in that protected space.
Humans Have Found Many Uses for Elderberry Plants Over the Years
