Winter Tree ID - Day 4 #beastrees

This one jumped the queue. Sounds about right as it rushes into everything. Cheeky sausage had already started unfurling leaves yesterday. And we’re not looking at leaves now. (Especially as these ones stink).

“Tree or Shrub?” (Who cares?)
1/4

Likes nitrogen so found near homes, waste ground & gardens. Pimply twigs due to lenticels (openings for passing gas). Told you it was a stinker. It can even repel flies & bunnies don’t eat it. Toffs mix it (& anything) with gin.

Shabby chic: groovy bark, moss & accessories...

You can easily ‘take the pith’ out of its random-sized twigs to hollow out peashooters, flutes or ‘artisan’ stuff.
It’s Elder. As in elderflower & elderberry.
Its scientific name ‘Sambucus’ may be an old wind instrument.
Buds in ‘opposite pairs’.
For scale: between Ash & Conker

Elder has a LOT of witchy connections. From Elder Mothers to Harry Potter’s Deathstick. Judas hung out in one.

It’s certainly what made our home-made ‘perfume’ stink so badly, when mixed up in sandcastle buckets with rain & petals, on front doorsteps for our oh-so-lucky mothers.