Elderflower
Sambucus canadensis
This one has a dangerous look-alike
Water hemlock and poison hemlock also have white umbels — but they are herbaceous plants with hollow, often purple-blotched stems, not woody shrubs. Water hemlock is the deadliest plant on the continent.
- When
- Typically June – July — June, July. Earlier in the south, later in the north.
- Where it grows
- Damp roadsides, ditches, streambanks and field edges.
- How to know it
- Big flat-topped creamy flower heads on a shrub with opposite compound leaves and pithy, not woody, young stems.
- Harvest and use
- Cordial, fritters, sparkling wine. Snip the whole head, shake out the insects, never wash.
- Caution
- Learn the difference before you pick a white flower head. Elder is a shrub with bark.
Found in these regions
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Also ready in September
FruitAugust – SeptemberBeach plum
Prunus maritima
Low sprawling shrub in the sand, with dusty purple plums about the size of a marble.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
NutSeptember – OctoberBlack walnut
Juglans nigra
Tennis-ball green husks lying under a tall tree with long compound leaves; the husk stains everything it touches brown.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Sandy Wolkenberg · CC BY 4.0
FruitAugust – SeptemberChokecherry
Prunus virginiana
Long drooping clusters of dark red-to-black cherries on a small tree with finely toothed oval leaves.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
Educational information only. Never eat a wild plant or mushroom identified from a single photograph or description — confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager, and know the poisonous species in your area first.