The elder tree (Sambucus nigra) is almost entirely useful from root to berry tip. Most people know the berry from winter immune supplements, but fewer know the flower, which has its own distinct and valuable medicinal character. The flower and the berry come from the same tree but work differently, and understanding both gives you the full year of what elder offers.
When to Harvest
Elderflowers appear in late May through June in the British and Northern European climate, varying by region and season. Harvest the flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers (corymbs) when they are fully open and powerfully fragrant, but before they begin to brown and fade. This window is brief, sometimes only a week or two for a given tree, and missing it means waiting another year. Cut the whole flower head with a short length of stem on a dry morning after dew has evaporated. Use them the same day if possible: they deteriorate quickly once picked.
What Elderflower Does Medicinally
Elderflower is a diaphoretic (promotes healthy perspiration and supports temperature regulation), anti-catarrhal (reduces excess mucus production in the respiratory tract), and mildly immune-modulating. Its traditional use is particularly for the onset of colds and flu with upper respiratory involvement: the streaming nose, the mild fever, the catarrhal congestion of the sinuses and airways. A strong elderflower tea drunk warm and frequently at the beginning of such a condition is one of the gentler and more traditional first responses in European folk medicine.
Preparations
Fresh elderflower tea: two or three fresh flower heads in a cup, just-off-the-boil water, covered and steeped for ten minutes. Delicate, sweet, and unmistakably floral. Dried elderflower keeps its properties reasonably well for about a year and allows year-round access. Elderflower infused in raw honey makes one of the most beautiful medicinal honeys available.
The Elder in Folklore
The elder has a complex and ambivalent place in European folk tradition. It was considered both protective and potentially dangerous, a tree of the boundary between worlds in some traditions, associated with the Elder Mother in Scandinavian folk belief, who required acknowledgment before the tree could be harvested. The Herbalist Codex app has the full elder profile, including both the medical history and the folk tradition, because for this plant, you need both to know it fully.