Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Sambucus australasica

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Budawang National Park

Leaf and fruit. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer A Lyne, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra

Flowering and fruiting branches. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Bandon, NSW

Trunk Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

Native Elderberry, Yellow Elderberry, Native Elder

Family

Adoxaceae

Where found

Wet forest and wet gullies. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands.

Notes

Shrub or tree to about 5 m high, more or less hairless. Fruit fleshy. Leaves opposite each other, 6–25 cm long, compound, with  3 or 5 leaflets each  2–10 cm long, 4–30 mm wide, tips pointed, margins coarsely toothed, surfaces soft and more or less hairless. Lowest pair of leaflets 2-10 cm from the stem. Flowers white to cream, about 3 mm long, with a short tube, usually with 3 petals. Flowers in loose clusters 10–20 cm diameter. Ripe fruit yellow, round, about 5 mm long. Flowers Spring to Autumn.

Family was Sambucaceae. Family Caprifoliaceae in Vic.

Vulnerable Vic. Listed in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Sambucus~australasica  (accessed 5 February, 2021)