Plant Species: Sambucus cerulea, blue elderberry
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Caprifoliaceae -- honeysuckle
Genus: Sambucus
Species: cerulea
Variety:
Common Name: blue elderberry
Species Code: SACE3, SANIC5
Origin: Native to moist open places such as riparian areas, draws, canyons, north facing slopes, shrub thickets and clearings in forests from British Columbia to California and east to Texas and Montana.
Rare: no
Form: shrub, deciduous, coarse, multiple stemmed, 2-7 m tall; twigs and stems pithy, twigs glaucous, bark reddish-brown.
Mature height: 6-12 feet
Duration: perennial
Longevity: medium life span
Habitat Type: riparian, shrub thicket, forest
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU
Leaves: petiolate, odd pinnately compound with 5 to 11 leaflets; leaflets 5-15 cm long, lanceolate to elliptic, tip acuminate, margins serrate, mostly glabrous or rarely hairy on the underside.
Flowers: perfect, numerous, borne in a terminal cyme; petals spreading, white or cream, 4-7 mm across, corolla lobes 1.5-2 mm long, oval, longer than the tube.
Flower color: white
Bloom: June, July, with an occasional flower cluster into August
Bloom starts on: early June
Bloom ends on: early July
Fruit: drupe, globose, 4-6 mm wide, black but densely glaucous and thus appearing blue; seeds rugulose, about 3 mm long, ovoid, brown.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Sambucus nigra L. ssp. caerulea (Raf.) R. Bolli is synonymous.
There is disagreement among taxonomists regarding subspecies and varieties (Brinkman & Johnson undated).
A common spelling variant for the specific epithet is caerulea, and a less frequent one is coerulea.
Some floras may treat it as S. mexicana.
Some taxonomists place the genus in Adoxaceae rather than Caprifoliaceae.
197,590 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
117,000-259,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
x=9 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=36 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a drupe.
Bears eat the fruit (Parish et al 1996).
Rocky Mountain elk browse the plants in summer and fall (Kufeld 1973).
Fruits are eaten by birds and small mammals. Plants provide cover and
nesting sites for birds. Deer browse the plants. Fruit can be made into jelly, jam, or wine.
Native peoples ate the berries raw, cooked or dried. The plants were used medicinally. Whistles
and flutes were made from the stems.
Seeds are dispersed by birds and mammals which eat the fruit.
Comments:
Sun requirement: full sun to light partial shade
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation: 10-60 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Fire: Resprouts from existing crowns and from the seed bank following fire. Seed is scarified by fire and germinates the year after the fire (Crane 1989).
Hazards: Stems and leaves may contain toxins. Fruits of other species are known to be toxic.
Sowing time: fall for untreated seed. Pretreated seed can be spring sown.
Transplant time: spring
Stratification: warm moist followed by cold moist. Gibberellic acid replaces warm stratification and increases germination.
Seed yield: high
Seed harvest: September
Seed first harvest: 3rd season
Seed cleaning: difficult
Planting duration: long
Seed insect problem: none noted
Seed shatter: low
Seed size: medium
Seed harvest date: September
Seed comments:
Seed can be stored for at least 16 years (Crane 1989).
Birds eat the fruits.
Keywords: native perennial upland shrub
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species: nigra
Alternate Subspecies: cerulea
Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network:
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
Other Propagation Information:
Presoak seed for 24 hours, then 1 month warm moist stratification followed by 3 to 4 months cold moist stratification in mesh bag between layers of peat (Hudson & Carlson 1998).
Seed in fall (Kingery et al 2003).
Seeds have embryo dormancy and require 60-90 days warm moist stratification followed by 90-100 days cold moist stratification (Rose et al 1998).
Grow from seeds sown soon after collection or stratified and spring sown. May take 2 years to germinate. Best germination occurs after 60-90 days warm moist stratification followed by 90+ days cold moist stratification. Sulfuric acid scarification followed by 2 months cold moist stratification increases germination. Presoaking in gibberellic acid at 100mg/liter for 24 hours followed by 30 days cold moist stratification yielded 55% germination (Brinkman & Johnson undated).
60 days cold moist stratification in gibberellic acid at 5oC resulted in 72.5% germination. 30% germination was obtained under the same regime in plain water instead of gibberellic acid (Clancy & Maguire 1979b).
Absisic acid content of the seed increases as the seed approaches maturity and then declines at maturity. Germination of seed increases as abscisic acid content decreases (Clancy & Maguire 1979a).
Seeds possess both an impermeable seed coat and morphological dormancy and germination is aided by sulfuric acid scarification followed by 2 months cold moist stratification at 34-40oF. A warm moist pretreatment of 3-4 month between the scarification and prechill results in more uniform germination (Heit 1967).
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Notes: Not one of the more attractive native shrubs for landscaping, but the fruits attract many birds. Needs annual pruning of dead stems to prevent decadent appearance. Perhaps better used in a more wild setting or for wildlife habitat.
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 12/8/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
Brinkman, Kenneth A., and Gary Johnson. undated. Sambucus L. elder. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/
Clancy, J.A., and J.D. Maguire. 1979a. Abscisic Acid Content in Developing Elderberry Seed. Journal of Seed Technology 4:34-42.
Clancy, J.A., and J.D. Maguire. 1979b. Seed Dormancy in Blue Elderberry. Journal of Seed Technology 4:24-33.
Crane, M. F. 1989. Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, December 31].
Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Department of Interior and US Department of Agriculture, NRCS. Denver, CO.
Heit, C. E. 1967. Propagation from Seed. Part 7: Germinating Six Hard Seeded Groups. American Nurseryman. 125(12): 10-12; 37-41; 44-45.
Hudson, Shelley, and Michael Carlson. 1998. Propagation of Interior British Columbia Native Plants from Seed. British Columbia Ministry of Forests. Online at http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/mr/Mr093/Mr093.pdf
Kingery, James, Angela Cotter, and Kendra Moseley. 2003. Idaho Roadside Revegetation Handbook. Prepared for: Idaho Transportation Department. Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, University of Idaho. Online at http://h237-41.state.id.us/highways/ops/maintenance/Manuals/fullVegetationManual.pdf
Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.
Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.
University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/
USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 29 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.