With berries that appear deceptively real, fake elderberry misleads gullible collectors. A mistake has fatal health consequences, because the fruits of the dwarf elder are poisonous. This is how you can tell the difference to the edible elderberry.
Dwarf elder - not an imitation and yet a fake fifty
Within the diverse elder species, the dwarf elder (attich) has its right to exist. After all, it scores with such a robust constitution that it is planted along the coasts as a windbreak on the dunes. Nevertheless, every year along the edges of the forest it fools the berry collectors, because its poisonous fruits look deceptively similar to real elderberries. You can identify the Attich by these characteristics:
- false elder grows herbaceous, while real elder is woody
- the poisonous, purplish-black berries are perpetually directed upwards, while edible fruits droop
- Attich berries have a slight dent on the fruit skin
- the leaflets on the false elder are narrower and shorter
- Dwarf elder gives off an unpleasant smell
- misleading elder is significantly smaller at 150 centimeters high
The distinction between false and real should not hide the fact that black elder does have a certain poison content. This applies in particular to the elderberries, which must not be eaten raw. However, the poison contained in it dissolves from a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius when cooking. With the fruits of the dwarf elder, no processing method leads to edibility.
tips and tricks
Since the high toxicity of the false elder also applies to birds and other animals, you should also refrain from growing parakeets in a garden that is close to nature. A suitable alternative from the elder genus are, for example, the yellow elder or the deer elder, which are beautiful to look at and at the same time a valuable tree for feeding birds.