Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Dipsacales > Viburnaceae > Sambucus > Sambucus nigra

Sambucus nigra (European black elderberry; European black elder; European elderberry)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Sambucus nigra is a species complex of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae native to most of Europe and North America. Common names include elder, elderberry, black elder, European elder, European elderberry and European black elderberry. It grows in a variety of conditions including both wet and dry fertile soils, primarily in sunny locations.
View Wikipedia Record: Sambucus nigra

Infraspecies

Sambucus nigra f. laciniata
Sambucus nigra f. nigra
Sambucus nigra var. laciniata
Sambucus nigra var. viridis

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Carbon Capture [1]  Low
Shade Percentage [1]  81 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  Low
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium-High
Bee Flower Color [2]  Blue-Green
Flower Color [2]  White
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [3]  The leaves and stems are poisonous; The fruit of many species (although no records have been seen for this species) has been known to cause stomach upsets to some people. Any toxin the fruit might contain is liable to be of very low toxicity and is destroyed when the fruit is cooked;
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [4]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Flies
Scent [3]  The crushed foliage has a strong aroma.
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  The plant is a valuable addition to the compost heap; The leaves are used as an insect repellent; They can be powdered and placed amongst plants to act as a deterrent; This is prepared by boiling 3 - 4 handfuls of leaves in a litre of water, then straining and allowing to cool before applying; Effective against many insects, it also treats various fungal infections such as leaf rot and powdery mildew;The dried flowering shoots are used to repel insects, rodents etc; The flowers are used in skin lotions, oils and ointments; Tolerant of salt-laden gales, this species can be grown as a shelter hedge in exposed maritime areas; This is an excellent pioneer species to use when re-establishing woodlands. It is very tough and wind-resistant, grows quickly and provides shelter for longer-lived and taller woodland species to establish. It will generally maintain itself in the developing woodland, though usually in the sunnier positions; A dye is obtained from the fruit and the bark; The bark of older branches and the root have been used as an ingredient in dyeing black; A green dye is obtained from the leaves when alum is used as a mordant; The berries yield various shades of blue and purple dyes; They have also been used as a hair dye, turning the hair black; The blue colouring matter from the fruit can be used as a litmus to test if something is acid or alkaline. It turns green in an alkaline solution and red in an acid solution; The pith in the stems of young branches pushes out easily and the hollow stems thus made have been used as pipes for blowing air into a fire; They can also be made into musical instruments; The pith of the wood is used for making microscope slides and also for treating burns and scalds; The mature wood is white and fine-grained. It is easily cut and polishes well; Valued highly by carpenters, it has many used, for making skewers, mathematical instruments, toys etc;
Height [3]  20 feet (6 m)
Width [3]  20 feet (6 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 6 Low Temperature: -10 F° (-23.3 C°) → 0 F° (-17.8 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 7 Low Temperature: 0 F° (-17.8 C°) → 10 F° (-12.2 C°)
Light Preference [5]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [5]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [5]  Rich
Soil Moisture [5]  Moist
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Sambucus nigra

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Providers

Consumers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2Arnold SEJ, Faruq S, Savolainen V, McOwan PW, Chittka L, 2010 FReD: The Floral Reflectance Database — A Web Portal for Analyses of Flower Colour. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14287.
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4PLANTATT - Attributes of British and Irish Plants: Status, Size, Life History, Geography and Habitats, M. O. Hill, C. D. Preston & D. B. Roy, Biological Records Centre, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2004)
♦ 5ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 8Ecology of Commanster
♦ 9Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 11Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 12Birds and berries: a study of an ecological interaction. Calton, Great Britain, Snow B.K., Snow D.W., 1988, T & AD Poyser. 268 p.
♦ 13Frugivorous diet of autumn migrant Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca: a review and new data, A. Hernández, Butll. GCA 16: 53-60, 1999
♦ 14Influences of the feeding ecology on body mass and possible implications for reproduction in the edible dormouse (Glis glis), Joanna Fietz, M. Pflug, W. Schlund, F. Tataruch, J Comp Physiol B (2005) 175: 45–55
♦ 15New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 16FLESHY FRUITS OF INDIGENOUS AND ADVENTIVE PLANTS IN THE DIET OF BIRDS IN FOREST REMNANTS, NELSON, NEW ZEALAND, PETER A. WILLIAMS and BRIAN J. KARL, New Zealand Journal of Ecology (1996) 20(2): 127-145
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0