Elder Tree

[greenrook]

My 'Black Lace' Elder tree puts out a lovely show of blossoms every year, but these are not followed by berries, the fruits never form except for one or two tiny ones. I'm not bothered, it's grown for its looks, but I just wondered why?

[kvalidir]

Do you have an absence of pollination do you think?

[greenrook]

I never thought of that. The tree lives in our shrubbery, along with a lot of other species, (Syringa, Lavender, Laurel, Spirea among them) and we get our fair share of bee visitors. The nearby dwarf apple tree fruits OK, but the dwarf apricot hasn't for the last 3 years. I think you're right kvalidir, I will read up on what pollinates what. BTW, next door's common-or-garden elder produces pounds of fruit every year! Thanks for your help -G-

[Chipchopper]

I'm glad you brought this up, greenrook because this is something thats been puzzling me also.

I have a cut-leaf golden elder, which is a garden cultivar of the red berried elder (sambucus racemosa). it flowers earlier than the black berried elder (Sambucus nigra) and it produces some very tiny green berries after flowering but more or less they all disappear overnight. I dont know what happens to them but I perhaps birds are eating them.

Your 'black Lace' seems to be a cultivar of (S nigra), so this surprises me why you are not getting fruit, when you have some regular elder berries close by ?

[dancecaller]

Is it a sterile hybrid? I know some potatoes set seed (like a little tomato but poisonous), and some don't.

[Chipchopper]

Both of these shrubs are ornamental varieties of their wild cousins and should still produce fruit.
I've checked on google images and there is plenty of evidence on there.

I still suspect birds are eating them, before they are fully ripe.

[greenrook]

Thank you all for your help, sorry to be slow in acknowledging, we've been away for a couple of days. Yes, it's a Sambucus Nigra, and in fact it does produce a very few tiny berries, (match-head size) which would argue it's being pollinated? But most of the flower heads simply drop their blooms and that's that, no berries form. Our post lady thinks the soil's too rich for it, hence the very exuberant growth, large leaves etc., too much nitrogen she says.