Sambucus adnata in southeast Tibet
Sambucus is a small genus of shrubs and perennials found primarily in temperate and subtropical forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North, Central, and South America. Elderberries are members of the Adoxaceae (the moschatel family), though older literature will indicate Caprifoliaceae (the honeysuckle family). However, repeated phylogenetic analyses have confirmed that Adoxaceae is the appropriate home for Sambucus. Like the taunt by the French soldier in Monty Python and the Holy Grail suggests (“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!“), elderberries have a distinctive odour. The compounds responsible for the odd, sometimes foetid aroma exists in leaf, stem and root tissues, as well as the fruits. A similar chemistry is found in species of Adoxa and Viburnum, the other two genera in Adoxaceae.
While Sambucus adnata is native to forests, streamsides, mountain slopes, and alpine grasslands, it is especially common in disturbed areas along roadsides and field-edges across the Himalayan region into the mountains of western China. Unlike the more familiar cultivated elders, some of which can become arborescent, Sambucus adnata is a suckering, colony-forming perennial or subshrub; plants sometimes develop a short scaffold of woody basal branches below the herbaceous shoots. The shoots are conspicuously marked with longitudinal striations, but lack obvious lenticels—the corky spots on the stems responsible for allowing gas exchange—that are characteristic of other elders. Plants grow to 2m (6 ft.) or more with elegantly relaxed compound leaves that radiate out from the sturdy stems and the attractive flower heads are flat topped—the flowers reddish in bud and opening pink or white. The fruits of this species are orange to red (the similar-looking, larger-flowered Sambucus ebulus from Europe has black fruit) and are normally taken by birds.
Excellent photo, setting and information! Working in a natural food store here in Hawai’i nei, a related species, the Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra), is one of our top sellers when it comes to boosting the immune system to fight against colds, fever, congestion, asthma and a ton of other related things. Elderberry is also high in antioxidants and vitamins (A, C, B-complex), amino acids and a host of other nutrition benefits.
Homemade Elderberry wine is the traditional way to take it here in the UK. Elderflower champagne has different medicinal effects, very good for a cold or ‘flu.
I remember seeing the similar Sambucus ebulus in Italy and foolishly tried eating a berry. It was so bitter I had to spit it out! I presume the Asian version is more palatable…
You can find S. ebulus rarely here in Sweden (it’s been around as an escapee for quite a while – even Linné did mention it) and I’ve seen it form big colonies – unusual looking in our flora to me, but sort of cool. It looked a lot like S. adenata in your great photo, but the environment was not that nice. I don’t know about S. adnata, but I wouldn’t try to eat any part of S. ebulus, since I’ve been told it’s poisonous. It the winter it just disappears since it’s herbaceous.
Beautiful photograph — it made me take a deep breath and relax.
Me too 🙂
Love the photo! Got to thinking about elderberries that I grew up around and seen not a one here.
Sambucus adnata is growing at Dunedin Botanic Garden in New Zealand. It grew from wild collected seed and I have seen it growing beautifully in Yunnan province China. In a garden situation it can become weedy and it appears metres away from the original planting. So plant with caution.
I experienced the odor issue when I purchased a black elder plant for my garden. As a botanical artist, I often paint or draw new garden purchases before planting them. I left my new plant in the studio, and when I came down the next morning I spent a great deal of time searching for the dead mouse or whatever animal had died in my studio before I realized the odor, which I hadn’t noticed out in the the open, was coming from the plant. Needless to say, my new black elder went right out to the far corner perimeter of my yard and did not spend enough additional time in my studio to have its portrait painted.
Very nice! Thank you for sharing.
Lovely painting, Jane!
Thank you, Mary. I call it “Vine Maple time Lapse”. I painted for a show called “In the Footsteps of David Douglas”.
One of my favourite summer drinks is elderflower cordial– very refreshing and very British!
Love the backdrop! Love BPOTD!
A little surprise for me, reading that Sambucus, and Viburnum are not in the Caprifoliaceae family. More importantly, is there an evolutionary significance to that smell? The Viburnum edule in my area are starting to produce it, which to me signals the onset of the fall season.
I remember one year in the mid-1960s when the rest of the family piled into the car to go to the New York State Fair, I stayed home for quieter activities. In the morning my grandmother and I picked ripe elderberries from bushes growing around the foundation of the abandoned barn. In the afternoon we made pies. Now, 50 years later when the State Fair rolls around in late August, I wonder if that barn still stands and if the elderberry bushes are still there.
Please be sure to cook the berries first. Some experience adverse reactions to eating raw elderberries such as a restriction of the throat. Just sayin’
Keep the stalks in your berries (or flowers in that season) to a minimum as well, the greenery is not so good for you.
Might it be that sambucus ebulus wonders around enjoying excess nitrogen and/ or metal pollution on fields edges and abandoned industrial plots?
I love it! A paragraph about Sambucus includes a quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! That movie crosses through all parts of society!