I had a request as to whether elderberries and Queen Anne’s Lace were the same thing, and I have to say I thought that too when I was in the Missouri Ozarks a couple years ago, even to the point of snapping a photo to check it out later.
But as shown in the photo above, Queen Anne’s Lace is a cluster of tiny white flowers on a long, spindly stem with small leaves, while elderberries are a large, full bush with multiple clusters and many long, pointed thin leaves. (For a bit more detail on Queen Anne’s Lace and its relation to the carrot, try this link.) Below is a photo of elderberries taken from the same area (note they’re also slightly dusty from being next to dirt roads) before the flowers have fully bloomed, making the clusters seem slightly flatter than they can get at their prime.
1 response so far ↓
1 Liz Plummer // Feb 16, 2008 at 11:54 am
There are quite a few plants which look rather like the elderflower - and some of them, like hemlock, are poisonous. I think though, only elderflowers grow as a shrub or bush. So you have to be a bit careful!
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