Elderberry is a shrub or small tree with bright green leaves, flat clusters of tiny white flowers, and hanging bunches of small dark-purple to black berries when ripe.

Quick Scoop

What the plant looks like

  • Grows as a shrub or small tree, usually 6–20 feet tall depending on species.
  • Branches form thickets or colonies, often with several stems rising from the base.
  • Bark is light gray when young and becomes rougher and furrowed with age.

Leaves

  • Leaves are opposite on the stem (they grow in pairs directly across from each other).
  • Each leaf is compound : one leaf is made of 5–7 (sometimes more) separate leaflets.
  • Leaflets are lance-shaped to oval, with sharply toothed edges and a bright to medium green color on top, paler beneath.

Flowers

  • Flowers appear in late spring to early summer in big, flat or slightly domed clusters (often several inches across).
  • Individual flowers are tiny, creamy white to yellowish white, with five petals.
  • The clusters look like flat “plates” of white foam on top of the green foliage.

Berries (the “elderberries”)

  • After flowering, the plant produces dense clusters of many small berries.
  • Ripe berries are glossy dark purple to almost black, usually about 3–5 mm (around 1/8 inch) across.
  • They often hang in somewhat drooping bunches from the flat-topped cluster.

If you’ve found a shrub with flat plates of white flowers in early summer and later heavy, drooping clusters of tiny dark-purple/black berries on compound, toothed leaves, you’re very likely looking at elderberry.

Quick caution

Wild plants can be confusing, and some parts of elderberry and similar-looking plants can be toxic if eaten raw, so always double-check with a local plant guide or expert before consuming anything.

TL;DR: Elderberry looks like a multi-stem green shrub with opposite, compound, toothed leaves; wide, flat clusters of tiny creamy-white flowers; and later, tight drooping clusters of many small, glossy dark-purple to black berries.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.