Plant identification please..

Hi everybody, newbie's first post here..

I have a communal area outside my house which I technically own and am responsible for maintaining - God bless covenants LOL

I recently gave a a major overhaul, drastically cutting everything back and now the sunny weather has arrived am relieved to see everything resprouting again.

However, amongst the new growth, is a new plant that seems to have self seeded and as it develops I have a nagging doubt about it - somewhere back in the cavernous recesses from my childhood I recall learning that something similar to this was poisonous or causes itching. As the area of shrubbery is played in by young local children in fine weather I'd rather remove it if you can confirm my old memories about the plant.

I'm attaching photographs if someone could aid in identification...



Thanks

Martin

 

Hi Martin, and welcome to Gardeners Corner!

The plant that you are showing looks like a young elder tree to me. Was it around 6' tall, when very easy to cut stems/branches, that seemed hollow inside?

Elder is a fast-growing shrubby tree. White flower heads in early summer (May/June) - can be made into champagne, cordial or wine; heads full of purple-black berries in Autumn (Sept/Oct) - can be made into syrup, wine, or a small amount added to apple crumble, or jams, to add vibrant colour and tartness. There is more vitamin C in elderberries than black currants.

I'm not aware of the sap being an irritant, although some individual plants/flowers can have a tendancy to smell more cats-pee like than others (better wine from the sweeter smelling flowers, in my experience).

 

I'd agree with Sian, looks like an Elder. Nothing to worry about unless you eat the berries raw, then the world will fall out of your bottom

 

Thanks Folks,

Your replies have rekindled old memories, my mother used to make an elderflower drink starting with steeping the whole head of flowers as found in the wild. I know it must have made a mild alcoholic drink as the bottles periodically exploded so there must have been some fermentation going on. The odd thing was both my parents were pledge signers and avoided beers, wine and alcohol as such. the only exception was a tiny glass of Stone's Green Ginger on the feast days of Christmas - even us youngsters...

I'll see how it goes, in due course it may get smothered by the larger bush it's sprung out of, once that get's decent foliage again the elder will be very much in the dark...

Martin

 

That's elderflower champagne. A simple recipe of flower heads, sliced lemon, sugar and water. The natural yeasts on the flowers cause it to ferment, so you need strong bottles!

 

Not much overshadows an Elder.
Well not for long, anyway.

 

One I cut down to the ground last year

 

Good for keeping the flies away too.

Round these parts, back in the days when horses were used on the land, the farmworkers would cut a branch of elder and stick it in the horse's collar to keep the flies away.

Tried putting a bit in my hat once, on a particularly hot summers day when the flies were annoying me. Can't say if it works or not, it kept falling out.

 

That may well be a point that sounds it's death knell

The location is adjacent the roadside and the major cutback I recently performed was to stop foliage overhanging the road and potentially damaging neighbour's cars as they passed. So I don't want to replace one slow growing shrub with a faster one!

Martin