The berries are edible .. and coming into season.
They taste different once the berries are black and squishy.
Flavours vary from caramel, chocolate, coffee. but wait till they are fully ripe or they can be a bit stingy.
The pendulous racemes of white flowers with showy red-purple bracts, followed by deep purple berries provide a long sequence of ripe berries.
Birds love them, inlcuding chickens. They flower and berries for a long time.
Ripe Berries in gin or vodka makes a caramel flavoured spirit.
Pheasant berry, Leycesteria formosa
They can be rather invasive so care with planting in limited areas, here they are being encouraged to pop up along hedgerows
