Tree identification woes

[Sappy]

Ive been happily going along with thinking my tree identification skills were not too bad.

Today i went off on an 8 mile round walk to a place where i knew there to be many a dead willow i could use for bowdrill sets. Sawed some pieces for hearths and drills to lengh and went home.

Soon as i split them, there was pith in it( not a massive pith) and the wood that looks perfect on the outside is in fact useless even after doing away with the pith.

Instead of just throwing it away i thought id learn to make a whistle, in my search for instructions i came across pictures of elder.

Now this elder thing looks remarkably like my willow lol

Can anyone help?

P.S The elder/ willow whistle works great

 

[Bushwhacker]

Have a whiff of a bit of elder leaf and a bit of willow leaf. You'll notice the difference, elder is quite pongy.

 

[Colin.W]

elder has quite gnarly bark even on the fairly small branches (not the last couple of years growth) it should be flowering soon, clusters of white flowers (which make a very lovely sparkling wine or refreshing cordial). The bark on willow is usually darker in colour the bark doesn't become gnarly untill the branche are a lot thicker compared to the elder. the flowers on a willow are commonly known as catkins and are different on male and female trees