Polyscias sambucifolia

Location & distribution maps

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Plant  information

Common name:                Elderberry panax 

• Also, small basswood, ornamental ash and elderberry ash

Conservation status:  unknown

Etymology:   

• x

Flowers:                  

• Yellow/green flowers form on panicles from December to February

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is an edible globose mericarp, 4 to 6 mm long

• Mauve or blue in colour

• Containing one or two seeds, 2 mm long

• Fruit matures from January to April

Leaves:         

• Leaf form varies between different sub forms of this plant; see Plant Net for detailed descriptions between the sub species

• Leaves are pinnate or bipinnate, with leaflets

• Between one and six pairs of leaflets on the leaf stem

• Leaflets of sub species sambucifolia are toothed, ovate in shape

• The other sub species leaves are not toothed.

• Leaflets 2 to 20 cm long

• Leaves glossy green above, dull glaucous below

• A terminal leaflet is seen on the end of the compound leaf

• Leaf stalks vary between 20 mm and no leaf stalk in sub species leptophylla

• Leaf shape varies between ovate or elliptic to broad-elliptic in sub species sambucifolia

• However the sessile leaflets of sub species leptophylla are oblong linear and somewhat curved (falcate) in shape

• Leaf formation is two-pinnate or rarely three-pinnate in sub species decomposita

• Leaf veins evident on both the upper and lower surfaces; sunken on the top of the leaf, raised below

Stem & branches: 

• The trunk is straight

• Bark is dark brown or black

• Fairly smooth, marked by lenticles, pustules and lines

Roots:         

• x

Habit:        

• Elderberry panax grows to 11 metres tall with a trunk diameter of 20 cm at Errinundra National Park and Otway National Park in the state of Victoria

Habitat:   

•  It is often seen on the edge of rainforests

Distribution:                  

• Native to eastern Australia

• From Cape Otway (38° S) in Victoria to the McPherson Range (28° S), on the border of NSW and Queensland

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

• Elderberry panax was first described by Franz Sieber in 1830 as Panax sambucifolius

• It was given its current name in 1894 by German botanist Hermann Harms

• The taxonomy of the small basswood has been reviewed, resulting in the recognition of three sub species: sambucifolia, decomposita and leptophylla

• Ecology

  • Currawongs eat the fruit

  • The caterpillars of the elderberry panax leaf roller (Cryptoptila australana) eat the leaves

• Uses

  • Elderberry panax has attractive foliage and fruit