Elder trees fall victim to very bad press

MARCH has, in general, been rather harsh this year. Where I live it snowed on St Patrick’s Day. As a result I have been searching for signs of spring with a little more desperation than usual.

One of the most reliable heralds announcing the end of winter is the elder tree.

Even in the cold midlands they come into leaf before the end of February, the very first of our native trees to do so.

There is a reason for this. Elders seldom grow very tall. They have been recorded as respectable, single-trunked trees of 10 metres. But more often they’re multi-stemmed shrubs that fail to achieve even half this height.

For trees in a wood, survival is all about the battle for light. If you happen to be shorter than most of the other trees in the wood you are in danger of losing this battle. The elder solves the problem by coming into leaf three months before the oak and the ash and having the light all to itself for a full quarter of the year.

Elders are not only small trees they are also rather unpopular ones. As a child I was told by a country man that they were unlucky because Our Lord was crucified on a cross made of elder wood. The species is found in the Middle East but I think it’s unlikely that the timber was used for cross making.

But the story is typical of the bad press that elder suffers from in Ireland and, it seems, much of the rest of Europe. You should never burn elder on the fire because you’ll see the Devil in the flames. If you make a cradle of elder wood the baby will be taken by the fairies. And, along with some other unpopular plant species, it has the ability to sour milk or prevent cream turning into butter.

I don’t know what the dislike of elder is founded on but I think it’s rather unfair because the species is attractive and very useful to both man and beast.

Apart from its role as a harbinger of spring, the elder goes on to produce large clumps of creamy-white, sweet scented flowers followed by drooping clusters of purple-red berries. Insects love the flowers and they can be made into a light and semi-sparkling summer wine. The berries probably make the best of all the hedgerow wines and can also be made into chutney (mixed with blackberries), a pleasant non-alcoholic cordial and even dried and used like raisins.

BUT ONE of my main uses for elder is to make an excellent organic insecticide. You just boil a bag full of leaves, strain off the ‘tea’ and add some washing-up liquid to it. It must be used immediately it cools down and is particularly good at zapping greenfly. The active ingredient is hydro-cyanic acid and this breaks down into harmless compounds within 24 hours, so there is no long-term contamination.

The timber is dense and heavy and larger pieces, seasoned for a few months, make fine firewood. So far there has been no sign of the Devil in the grate.

Elder is an opportunist species and quickly becomes established in disturbed ground, particularly if there is plenty of nitrogen in the soil.

For this reason seedlings can become an annoying garden weed.

Birds, and even small mammals, love the berries and distribute them widely in their droppings. When the seedlings appear they seem to be unpalatable to grazing animals like rabbits and hares, which allows them to get off to a good start. The young trees then grow extremely quickly, reaching two or three metres in a couple of years.

But a weed is only a plant in the wrong place. In the right place elder is an excellent tree.

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