Sambucus australasica

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids > Campanulids > Dipsacales >Adoxaceae > Sambucus australasica

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:       Yellow Elderberry

• Also, Native elderberry or native elder

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• Are sweetly scented and arranged in groups 100–200 mm in diameter

•  They have 3 white petals about 3 mm long

• Flowering occurs from October to March 

Fruit:                         

• The yellow fruit is an oval to spherical yellow drupe about 5 mm in diameter

Leaves:         

• The leaves are pinnate, 60–250 mm long 

• The petiole is 20–100 mm long,

• There are 3 or 5 leaflets, each narrow elliptic to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base

• Leaflets are 20–100 mm long and 4–30 mm wide with coarsely-toothed edges on a petiolule 2–5 mm long

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of 4 m and has glabrous stems, leaves and flowers

Habitat:   

• It usually grows in and on the edges of rainforest 

Distribution:                  

• It is endemic to eastern Australia

• Widespread in coastal districts of Queensland and NSW and inland to Rylstone and Tamworth

• It is rare in Victoria where it only occurs in the far north east of the state

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Yellow elderberry was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley who gave it the name Tripetelus australasicus and published the description in Thomas Mitchell's book, Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia

  • In 1891, Karl Fritsch changed the name to Sambucus australasica in Adolf Engler and Karl Anton Prantl's book Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien

Sources of information:

• (2023)