American elderberry

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FAC - Facultative

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

American elderberry is a fast growing, short lived, shrub rising on multiple stems from shallow roots and stolons. Individual plants usually live 3 to 5 years and are replaced by new plants rising from the same rootstock.

The stems are erect or arching, branching, hairless, up to 12′ tall, and up to 3½″ in diameter at breast height. They are brittle, weak, and dotted with conspicuous, large, raised, warty bumps (lenticels). First year stems and twigs are green, smooth, and sometimes covered with whitish, waxy bloom (glaucous). Second year stems and twigs are grayish or yellowish-brown, woody, and rough.

The twigs are stout. The area of cells in the center of the stem (pith) is large, encompassing more than half of the diameter of the twig. The pith is pure white in both first-year and second-year twigs. Lateral buds are reddish-brown, small, cone-shaped, and somewhat depressed. There are no terminal buds.

The leaves are opposite, deciduous, and pinnately divided into usually 7, occasionally 5 or 9, sometimes 11, leaflets. They are attached to the twig on a 1¼″ to 2¾″ long leaf stalk. The upper surface of the leaf stalk is channeled. The channel is hairy but the leaf stalk is otherwise hairless.

The leaflets are lance-shaped to egg-shaped or elliptic, 2″ to 4¾″ long, and 1″ to 2¼″ wide. They are either stalkless or are attached to the central leaf stalk (rachis) on a leaflet stalk no more than ¼″ long. They are rounded or tapered and symmetrical at the base and taper to a point at the tip with concave sides along the tip. The terminal leaflet is often somewhat larger than the lateral leaflets. The upper surface of the leaflet is dark green, and sparsely hairy, at least along the midvein. The lower surface is pale green and hairy along the veins. The margins have fine, sharp, forward-pointing teeth.

The inflorescence is a branched, 3½″ to 7″ wide cluster (cyme) at the ends of the stems and branches. The cymes are flat-topped and much wider than long. They rise on erect, 2⅜″ to 5½″ long stalks that branch at the tip into 5 rays. Each cyme has 200 to 400 small flowers.

The flowers are about ¼″ wide. There are 5 white petals and 5 stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers. The flowers have a musty fragrance. They appear in early July to mid-August.

The fruit is a juicy, globular berry, about ¼″ in diameter, containing 3 to 5 seeds. It ripens in early August to mid-September turning dark, blackish-purple.

5′ to 12′

White

Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) has undivided (simple), hairless leaves. The inflorescence is smaller, 2″ to 4″ wide, and round-topped.

Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. racemosa) second year twigs have brown pith. The leaves usually have 5 leaflets, occasionally 7. The leaf stalk is hairy on all surfaces. The leaflets are asymmetrical at the base and are more coarsely toothed. The inflorescence is smaller, pyramid-shaped or egg-shaped, not flat-topped. It blooms from June to July. Mature berries are bright red.

Moist to wet. Meadows, floodplains, marsh edges, streams. Full sun to light shade.

Early July to mid-August

Elderberry Rust (Puccinia bolleyana)

The fruit is safe to eat when cooked. The raw fruit, the seeds, and all other parts of the plant are poisonous, and can be lethal at high doses.

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Species
Some authors treat this as a Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis, a subspecies of black elderberry.

Family
There is some disagreement about the correct placement of the genera Sambucus and Viburnum. They were formerly included in the family Caprifoliaceae. In 2003, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group proposed moving them to the Adoxacea family (APG II), but the Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants approved the conservation of Viburnaceae. In 2016, Angiosperm Phylogeny Group proposed to “super-conserve” Adoxacea (APG IV), but the General Committee for Botanical Nomenclature rejected the proposal.

Currently (2023), some sources, including USDA PLANTS and NatureServe, place the genera Sambucus and Viburnum in the Caprifoliaceae family. Some sources, including ITIS and NCBI, place them in the Adoxacea family. Almost all other sources, including APG IV, World Flora Online, Plants of the World Online, GRIN, GBIF, and iNaturalist, place the two genera in the Viburnaceae family.

Plant

Inflorescence

Flowers

Leaves

Infructescence

Location: Spring Lake Township, MN. In our property edge close to the wetland.

We have two bushes 5' away from each other

Location: Owatonna, MN

Location: Verndale Minnesota

These plants are located on my personal property.