Elder is one of our smaller hedgerow trees, growing wild in many places and self-seeding often.

It’s a tree that humans have used for thousands of years - and has a lot of folklore and superstition attached to it…

It’s thought that the name ‘elder’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon words ‘ellaern’ meaning ‘hollow tree’ and/or ‘aeld’ meaning fire, as the hollow twigs were used to spark a fire into life by blowing air into it.
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The Anglo-Saxons also used the words ‘eller’ and ‘kindler’ to refer to the wood of the elder, so we can see how the word ‘elder’ started to evolve.