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Sambucus canadensis

L. (1753)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Dipsacales Family: Viburnaceae Genus: Sambucus

Mexican elderberry

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or small trees 3–5(–10) m tall, essentially glabrous throughout.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Opposite. Leaflets usually 5–7, lowest ones often trifoliate, lateral ones reduced, ovate, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic–oblong, 3.5–9 cm long, 1.1–3 cm wide. Surfaces often pubescent, especially on midrib on lower surfaces and petioles. Margins serrate. Petiolate.

Flowers: Flowers in corymbiform cymes 6–20 cm in diameter, in basically cymose inflorescences. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Corolla actinomorphic, rotate, 3–5-lobed, corolla white, the lobes 2–3 mm long. Stamens 5; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior; ovule placentation axile, pendulous, anatropous; style 1.

Fruit: Mature fruit purplish black; 5–8 mm in diameter. Seeds with oily; fleshy endosperm.

Ploidy: 2n = 38

Habitat: Commonly cultivated and sparingly naturalized or escaping in cool; mesic to wet areas.

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Images

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Synonyms (37)

Aralia sololensis Donn.Sm. (1913)
Sambucus bipinnata Moench (1794)
Sambucus canadensis f. atroflavula House (1923)
Sambucus canadensis f. aurea (J.F.Cowell ex L.H.Bailey) Rehder (1949)
Sambucus canadensis f. chlorocarpa Rehder (1911)
Sambucus canadensis f. delicatissima Schwer. (1908)
Sambucus canadensis f. engelmannii Rehder (1911)
Sambucus canadensis f. maxima (Hesse) Schwer. (1909)
Sambucus canadensis f. repens Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus canadensis f. rosicalyx Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus canadensis f. rubra E.J.Palmer & Steyerm. (1938)
Sambucus canadensis subsp. laciniata (A.Gray) A.E.Murray (1983)
Sambucus canadensis var. aurea J.F.Cowell ex L.H.Bailey (1902)
Sambucus canadensis var. glabra Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus canadensis var. laciniata A.Gray (1884)
Sambucus canadensis var. maxima (Hesse) C.K.Schneid. (1911)
Sambucus canadensis var. oreopola (Donn.Sm.) Rehder (1911)
Sambucus canadensis var. rubella Schwer. (1909)
Sambucus canadensis var. submollis Rehder (1911)
Sambucus canadensis var. tarda Schwer. (1909)
Sambucus cerulea var. arizonica Sarg. (1922)
Sambucus eberhardtii Danguy (1922)
Sambucus humilis Raf. (1820)
Sambucus intermedia var. insularis Schwer. (1909)
Sambucus mexicana (Misapplied) C.Presl ex DC. (1830)
Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis (L.) Bolli (1994)
Sambucus nigra var. canadensis (L.) B.L.Turner (2003)
Sambucus orbiculata Greene (1910)
Sambucus orbiculata var. glabra Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus orbiculata var. puberula Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus oreopola Donn.Sm. (1898)
Sambucus planteriensis Simon-Louis ex Dippel (1889)
Sambucus plantierensis Koehne (1893)
Sambucus pubens var. maxima Hesse (1898)
Sambucus rehderiana Schwer. (1920)
Sambucus repens Raf. (1838)
Sambucus simpsonii Rehder (1911)

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Naturalized

Island Status

Kaua'i Naturalized
O'ahu Only found in cultivation
Maui Potentially naturalizing
Hawai'i Naturalized

Dispersal Agents

Birds

Pollinators

Specimens

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Notes

  • Description digitized by Mercedez
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii
  • First collected on O'ahu in 1938

Bibliography

Name Published In: Sp. Pl.: 269 (1753)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:495 (K, O, EM, H [as S. mexicana]); Oppenheimer & Bartlett 2002:5 (WM); Staples & Herbst 2005:220 (KEY), 222 (DESCR); Whittemore 2018 (S. mexicana usage inconsistent, name lectotypified, [while the paper doesn’t mention it, Whittemore annotated all Haw'n material at US as S. canadensis]); Faccenda, Arthur, et al. 2025:218 (S. mexicana misapplied = S. canadensis)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
1 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
2 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
3 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
4 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
5 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
6 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
7 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
8 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
9 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
10 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
11 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
12 Sambucus canadensis c.a 4-5 mi. e of waimea. Near road. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN p. rubtzoff 3711 USF 6/22/1958
13 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
14 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
15 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
16 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
17 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
18 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
19 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
20 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
21 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
22 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
23 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
24 Sambucus canadensis Kokee State Park, Waineke Swamp along Mohihi Road, ca. 0.5 miles East of Highway 550. Marshy area with mixed mesophytic forest around perimeter. PRESERVED_SPECIMEN David H. Lorence 5750 Kauai PTBG 1/28/1988
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