Adoxaceae

Internal links:             Angiosperms > Eudicots > Superastrids > Campanulids > Dipsacales >Adoxaceae

External links:     Angiosperms > Eudicots > Superastrids > Campanulids > 

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids > Dipsacales >Adoxaceae  

Other links:                                                              

Common name:       Elderberry, or Moschatel                                                                              

Etymology:   New Latin, Ancient Greek ξανθός (xanthós, “yellow”) + ῥοία (rhoía, “flow”)

Flowers:                  

• Small five- or, more rarely, four-petalled flowers in cymose inflorescences,

Fruit:                         

•  A drupe

Leaves:         

•  They are characterised by opposite toothed leaves

• 
  

Habit:        

• Adoxa is a small perennial herbaceous plant, flowering early in the spring and dying down to ground level in summer immediately after the berries are mature; the leaves are compound.

• The elders are mostly shrubs, but two species are large herbaceous plants; all have compound leaves. 

• The viburnums are all shrubs, with simple leaves.

Habitat:   

• x 

Distribution:                  

Species:                     

• World:            150–200  S,    5 G

• Australia:      S,    G

Additional notes:        

• They are similar to many Cornaceae, which have opposite or alternate simple leaves, 4- or 5-parted flowers clustered in inflorescences or pseudanthia, and drupaceous fruits

• Recent sources, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, treat this family as Viburnaceae 

• In older classifications, this entire family was part of Caprifoliaceae, the honeysuckle family. Adoxa (moschatel) was the first plant to be moved to this new group. Much later, the genera Sambucus (elders) and Viburnum were added after careful morphological analysis and biochemical tests by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. An additional monotypic genus Sinadoxa has been added based on molecular comparison with Adoxa.

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