This lone Elderberry bush looks really healthy, so I thought I'd take a closer look this morning on my way to the recycling center and see if I could spot the elusive Elderberry Beetle. I haven't seen any this year, unless a immature beetle I posted over a week ago happens to be one. I looked at every flower cluster and saw no insects of any kind.
Here's a close-up of a flower cluster.
And here's a cluster of green berries. The ripe berries, due in a month or so, are blue and more or less edible. There's some risk of kidney trouble, and the berries are quite bitter unless cooked down into a jam or wine. I checked the bush again around 5:00 this afternoon and found many Longhorn Beetles of another kind, the same kind that invaded my son's bedroom one evening last week. The Elderberry Beetle is also a type of Longhorn Beetle in the Family Cerambycidae. I'll probably check this bush every day for a while in hopes of seeing the real thing.
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