Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)
Gitxsan name: sgan loots'
Wet'suwet'en name: luts dicin
Botanical Description
- shrub to small tree, 1-5 metres tall, soft pithy twigs, strong,
characteristic odor
- large leaves, divided into 5-7 lance-shaped leaflets, sharply toothed,
somewhat hairy beneath
- white to creamy flowers in rounded or pyramidal cluster
- bright red berrylike drupes, not palatable and can cause nausea
- found in streambanks, swampy thickets, moist clearings and shaded forests
- up to subalpine elevations
- locally abundant in region
Photo courtesy of Jim Pojar (66kB)
Ethnobotanical Use
Although the berries are reputedly poisonous, they were very popular
with the Gitxsan and were steamed or boiled into a kind of jam or cooked and served
with oolichan grease. They were also mixed with black huckleberries in berry cakes and
these were prized delicacies at feasts. The bark and roots were boiled and the infusion
was drunk as an emetic or purgative. The stems can be hollowed out to make whistles,
straws, blowguns and pipestems.
CAUTION: The stems, roots and foliage are poisonous or toxic.
This digital collection was produced under contract to the SchoolNet
Digital Collection Program, Industry Canada.
Revised: 08/21/98
