White elderberry
On Mount Donna Buang, Victoria
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Adoxaceae
Genus: Sambucus
Species:
S. gaudichaudiana
Binomial name
Sambucus gaudichaudiana

Sambucus gaudichaudiana, commonly known as white elderberry,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a perennial shrub but with stems that are produced annually with pinnate leaves that have three to eleven leaflets, small white flowers and small but edible fruit. It grows in cool forest and shady gorges.

Description

Sambucus gaudichaudiana is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) from a perennial rootstock but with grooved stems that are renewed each year. The leaves are pinnate, mostly 100–350 mm (3.9–13.8 in) long and sessile with three to eleven narrow lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaflets mostly 30–50 mm (1.2–2.0 in) long and 10–60 mm (0.39–2.36 in) wide with serrated or lobed edges. The flowers are borne in corymb-like groups 8–20 mm (0.31–0.79 in) in diameter, with three or four glabrous, egg-shaped sepals about 1 mm (0.039 in) long and white petals 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) long . Flowering mainly occurs from October to February and the fruit is an edible, white, oval to spherical drupe about 5 mm (0.20 in) long.[2][3][4][5]

Taxonomy

Sambucus gaudichaudiana was first formally described in 1830 by de Candolle in his book Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.[6][7]

Distribution and habitat

White elderberry mainly grows in forest, usually in moist or shady sites in south-eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales as far west as Warren, the Australian Capital Territory, the southern half of Victoria, in Tasmania and the far south-eastern corner of South Australia.[2][3][4]

Use as food

The berries of S. gaudichaudiana are edible, juicy, slightly sour and pleasant and can be eaten raw or cooked.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ "Sambucus gaudichaudiana". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Jeanes, Jeff A. "Sambucus gaudichaudiana". Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  3. 1 2 Harden, Gwen J. "Sambucus gaudichaudiana". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Sambucus gaudichaudiana". State Herbarium of South Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  5. ↑ Low,T., Wild Food Plants of Australia, 1988. ISBN 0-207-16930-6
  6. ↑ "Sambucus gaudichaudiana". APNI. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  7. ↑ de Candolle, Augustin Pyramus (1830). Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. Paris: Sumptibus Sociorum Treuttel et Würtz,1824-73. p. 322. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Glowinski, L, The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia, 2000
  9. ↑ "Native White Elderberry". South Australian Native Food Association. Retrieved 10 October 2020.


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