2. Sambucus L. (elderberry)
Plants shrubs or
small trees with soft wood. First-year twigs 3–8 mm thick, the pith large,
solid but soft or spongy. Winter buds more or less ovoid, with several
overlapping scales. Leaves with well-developed, unwinged petioles, none
perfoliate. Stipules absent or, if present, then small, usually shed early,
herbaceous or glandular, linear (note that the primary leaf divisions also
frequently have linear, stipulelike outgrowths at their bases). Leaf blades
pinnately usually 1 time compound, but rarely (in horticultural forms) the
primary divisions again irregularly 1 or 2 times lobed, dissected, or compound,
the leaflets otherwise lanceolate to narrowly oblong or elliptic, the margins
sharply toothed. Flowers in dense panicles, terminal on the branches, the
branch points with inconspicuous, minute, ovate to triangular bracts, the
individual flowers bractless. Calyx lobes inconspicuous, 0.2–0.8 mm long,
oblong to ovate-triangular. Corollas 2–3 mm long, actinomorphic, more or less
bell-shaped with a cup-shaped tube about 1 mm long and a spreading, 5-lobed
portion 3–5 mm in diameter (measured across the top of the flower), the lobes
rounded, white or pale yellow. Style absent or nearly so, the deeply 3–5-lobed
stigma appearing sessile. Fruits berrylike drupes, 4–6(–7) mm in diameter, more
or less spherical, orangish red to red or bluish black at maturity. Seedlike
nutlets (also called pyrenes or stones) 3–5, 2.5–3.0 mm long, more or less
obovate to elliptic in outline, somewhat flattened or bluntly 3-angled, the
surface roughened with irregular, fine cross-wrinkles or blunt, low ridges,
yellowish brown to brownish yellow. Nine to 20 species, nearly worldwide, most
diverse in temperate and montane regions.
The stems,
leaves and roots of Sambucus species are poisonous, and ingestion can
cause vomiting and diarrhea. They have been used medicinally in the past, taken
as strong purgatives or applied externally for skin disorders.