Sambucus, the name of the Elder-tree, is believed to have been derived from σαμβύκη, a musical instrument, probably in allusion to the use of the pithy stems.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Cymes flat-topped; pith usually white; fruit black; nutlets rugose. Fruit lustrous.1. [S. Simpsonii] (C). Fruit appearing blue from a thick covering of bloom.2. [S. coerulea] (B, F, G, H). Cymes ovoid; pith pale brown; fruit red; nutlets smooth.3. [S. callicarpa] (B, G).
1. [Sambucus Simpsonii] Rehd.
Leaves 4′—7′ long, 3—7, usually 5-foliolulate, with a glabrous petiole and usually 5 dark yellow-green leaflets, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface with the exception of a few scattered hairs on the midrib, and paler and glabrous on the lower surface, the terminal leaflet obovate or oblong-obovate, short-acuminate at apex, and gradually narrowed at base into a slender petiolule ⅓′—½′ in length, the lateral leaflets broad-elliptic to oblong-elliptic, short-acuminate, broad-cuneate at base, those of the upper pair usually sessile, those of the lower pair on short stalks rarely more than 1/12′ long, serrate except at the base with small slightly spreading teeth, 1½′—3′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide. Flowers slightly fragrant, on slender pedicels in convex or sometimes flat cymes 3′—8′ in diameter, with 4 or 5 rays, the terminal ray as long or longer than the lateral rays, rarely shorter; calyx-tube ovoid, the lobes oblong-ovate, acute, about as long as the tube and slightly exceeding the thick conic style; stamens about as long as the white corolla-lobes; ovary usually 5, rarely 4-celled. Fruit subglobose, dark purplish black, about ¼′ in diameter; nutlets rugose.
A tree, sometimes 15°—18° high, with a trunk often 8′ in diameter, and slightly angled branchlets greenish when they first appear, becoming light yellow-gray and sometimes covered during their second and third years with thick corky excrescences; pith white, on 2 or 3-year-old branches comparatively narrow, occupying only about one-third of the diameter of the stem.
Distribution. Florida, neighborhood of Jacksonville, Duval County, to Eustis, Lake County, Bradentown, Manatee County, and Sanibel Island, Lee County; Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Jackson County; Louisiana, Cameron, Cameron Parish.
2. [Sambucus coerulea] Raf.
Sambucus glauca Nutt.
Sambucus neomexicana Woot.