What Is This Plant?

Filed under: Home and Garden — joy at 11:22 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Could someone tell me what this plant is that is in my backyard? It’s a tree about 20 ft tall. It is covered with purple berries. The birds don’t seem to eat the berries, so they may be poisonous. The leaves seem to be turning yellow, so the plant may be deciduous (then again it could just be unhealthy).

I am thinking it might be an elderberry. Does anyone know? I am trying to decide whether to replace it or not.


Berries up close

Leaves
The leaves

And a shot of the tree (it’s foggy today):

UPDATE: It is probably a Mexican Elder. The berries taste like leaves and have no juice. The plant is ugly, although it does provide a lot of privacy in the backyard.

Long term plan: Remove tree. Replace with an avocado?

9 Comments »

Comment by Bill Gregg

January 16, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

Looks like a Mexican Elder, maybe canadiensis subspecies. Appears distressed, maybe from the ivy thats choking it.

Comment by joy

January 17, 2008 @ 3:40 pm

Bill–Thank you! That makes perfect sense. And yes, I think the ivy is choking everything in my backyard right now.

Comment by Bill Gregg

January 25, 2008 @ 6:37 pm

Hi Joy. I vote for the tree, lol. If you tear off the vines and feed it with some fertilizer spikes it will look like this:

http://www.guzmansgreenhouse.com/desert-trees/mexican-elder.jpg

Comment by Elizabeth

February 2, 2008 @ 3:20 pm

It looks like a Japanese ligustrum to me.

The berries are mildly toxic, so don’t, uh, make jam or anything before you get a positive ID.

Comment by Bill Gregg

February 2, 2008 @ 10:17 pm

Elizabeth’s right. The leaves aren’t serrated.

Comment by Joy

February 4, 2008 @ 12:46 pm

Bill and Elizabeth–Thanks for your help. It definitely looks like the Japanese lingustrum. I will probably take it out long-term, but for now I will save it from the ivy. :)

Comment by Amy

February 11, 2008 @ 11:28 am

Hi Joy,

Just sticking one more note in to say it doesn’t look like an elderberry to me… if you want some good links to photos and information on elderberries for more comparisons, I have tons at my site at elderberries.com. :)

Comment by Joy

April 2, 2008 @ 9:14 am

Thanks again, all. I decided to let the tree stay for the time being, whatever it is. I killed the ivy off the poor thing and it turns out to be a good climbing tree. Those are valuable.

Pingback by Joy Lanzendorfer » Bird Songs All Day Long

April 16, 2008 @ 12:36 pm

[...] The neatest part of all this is that a red finch family has built a nest in my garage. Every time I go into the backyard, the female flies away and sits in the branches of the mystery tree in an attempt to distract me from her nest. [...]

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