How to identify blue elderberry
One of the easiest ways to ID the elderberry for certain is to cut open a branch and look for the pith in the center. All Elderberry trees will have this soft pith in the center of the branches. When you think you are looking at an elderberry cut one open and you will be able to identify it for certain. There are a couple other identifying traits you should look for as well.
Elderberry trees have compound leaves with leaflets. this is another easy way to identify this plant.
Blossom and compound cyme flower inflorescence
Finally let’s look at the blossom and berry grouping. A grouping of flowers is referred to as an inflorescence. At first glance, the Elderberry appears to have an “umbel” shaped inflorescence. That is a group of flowers that look like an umbrella. In reality the correct term for the elderberry inflorescence is a compound cyme or perhaps a compound umbel. This is another distinction of the elderberry tree. While it is not the only tree that offers it’s berries this way, it is one more identifier that will help.
Elderberry tincture is made from the flowers and you might want to limit how many of those you pick. Perhaps one to two inflorescences (groups of flowers) because the berries come from the flowers later on so we don’t want to deplete a tree. Taking a few from each tree will help the tree produce larger fruit with those that are left and leaving plenty on the tree will allow other foragers more to forage later on as well.