Sambucus
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Sambucus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Family
- Viburnaceae
Common Names
- Elder
Editorial Note
Long classified in Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle family), then placed in the monotypic Sambucaceae, Sambucus is now included in the small three-genus family Viburnaceae, together with Adoxa and Viburnum. The conserved name Viburnaceae Raf., has been accepted (not uncontroversially) as the name for this family since August 2016 (Wilson 2017; cf. Reveal 2008), though APG IV (2016), published earlier that year, had used the synonym Adoxaceae E.Mey, which lacks priority. For an account of the placement of Sambucus, see Applequist (2015).
The text below is adapted from Bean (1981) to reflect the updated taxonomy. A fuller, revised treatment of Sambucus will be provided when funding is available. If you would like to sponsor the work please write to editor@treesandshrubsonline.org
About forty species of elder are known, which are widely spread over the temperate and subtropical parts of the globe. Of these about nine shrubby ones are hardy in Britain. The elders are recognisable by their pinnate leaves, which always have an odd number (three to eleven) of toothed leaflets. There are, however, other differences of a technical character, considered by some botanists to be weighty enough for Sambucus to be given the rank of a monotypic family, the Sambucaceae. The flowers are borne in umbel-like inflorescences (sect. Sambucus) or in panicles (sect. Botryosambucus); to the latter section belong S. melanocarpa, S. pubens and S. racemosa. The flowers are very uniform in size and hue, being from 1⁄8 to 3⁄16 in. across, and of some shade of white. The various parts are normally in fives. Fruits 1⁄4 in. or less in diameter, globose or nearly so, containing three to five one-seeded nutlets. All the cultivated species are deciduous, and have opposite leaves, the young shoots are soft and full of pith, but the wood of the trunk is hard and bony. A few species are herbaceous, of which the best known is S. ebulus L., which is naturalised in Britain but doubtfully a native.
The elders like a good, moist soil, and given this are not hard to accommodate. They can be propagated by cuttings either of leafless wood put in the open ground in early winter, or by half-ripened young wood with a heel in frames. The pruning of the sorts grown for their foliage should be done before growth commences.
