Red Elderberry

The RMSBA, Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists, has a call for an upcoming exhibition featuring the alpine and subalpine plants of the Rocky Mountains. My yurt is in the Manti-La Sal mountain range, which isn’t part of the Rocky Mountains. Lucky for me, many of the same plants grow in both places. I’m drawn to the red clusters of the elderberry bush that happily lives just outside my door.

The seeds of this berry are toxic, and the berries smell awful when broken open. In order to examine the seeds, I worked quickly and promptly disposed of the smelly remains. I read that if you remove the seeds, you can use the berry for syrup or flavoring, perhaps it needs to ripen more to be palatable.

Native Americans have used this plant for medicines ranging from consuming the fruit as a laxative, to treating boils with the leaves, and the roots(infused) for stomach pains or sore muscles. Elderberry is used in medicine today for things like sinus infections, lowering blood pressure, and even in cancer treatments. (uwb.edu)

The compound leaves have an elegant movement, and the stems are a velvety purple color. I’m particularly interested in the colors of the clusters as they ripen from green to yellow, then to orange and bright red. This is going to be a colorful painting.