There are more than 7,000 trees in Alexandra Park and our resident expert, Stephen Middleton from The Friends of Alexandra Park, is introducing us to some of this favourites. 

Wine is made from both the flowers and the berries and cordials are made from the flowers of our May Tree of the Month, the Elder (Sambucus nigra).

The original drink named sambuca may have been made from the elder, but the present one is made from aniseed with some versions including elder flowers for flavouring. However, the name of the drink may have been derived from the people who sold water and aniseed in Italy, the sambuchelli.

Where is our thirst quenching tree of the month? Stand in the middle of the Alexandra Park Club (Cricket and Football) car park with your back to the clubhouse and the tree is full of white flowers to your left.

The elder is one of the first trees to sprout leaves in the early spring. Each leaf is made up of about five to seven leaflets. The tree is usually quite small and is often multi-stemmed, but it can reach up to 10metres high. It starts to look old while still quite young having a heavily ridged corky bark.

This time of year the plates of small, cream coloured flowers cover the trees and are attractive to insects. In late summer the berries mature starting off green in colour they pass through red and purple to black.

The tree can be spotted in many situations, but is most often seen in fertile disturbed soil, often with stinging nettles.

The scientific name, sambucus, is probably derived from a musical instrument. If you hollow out the stalk pith, whistles can be made.

Black, green and blue dyes were sourced from various parts of the tree.

The flowers can be fried in batter and berries can be made into a ketchup known as pontack sauce. Both the flowers and berries are rich in Vitamin C.

Even the jelly ear, a fungus that grows on the tree, is used in Chinese cuisine.

The elder is native to Britain and most of the rest of Europe, the near east and part of north Africa.

Folklore is rife around this tree both positive – stops milk going off – and negative a tree associated with witches, fairies and the devil.

To the left of our Tree of the Month is a dogwood, another large shrub/small tree with small white flowers.