850 



The Elders 



small fruit is usually bright scarlet but some plants produce yellow and still others 

 brownish colored fruit. 



2. CALIFORNIA TREE ELDER Sambucus callicarpa Greene 



This tree, known only from California, where it is quite widely distributed in the 



Coast Mountains, reaches a maximum 

 height of 8 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 3 dm. ; it probably extends northward 

 into Oregon, and is often a mere shrub. 

 The light brown bark is slightly fis- 

 sured. The young twigs are somewhat 

 hair}', becoming light red-brown with 

 age, and filled with a thick white pith. 

 The young leaves are sparsely covered 

 with stiff hairs and provided with small 

 callous-tipped stipules; the 5 to 9 short- 

 stalked leaflets are thin, oval to oblong- 

 obovate, 5 to 10 cm. long, acute or 

 blunt, quite unequally rounded at the 

 base, and closely and deeply toothed; 

 they are dark green on the upper side 

 and Hghter green beneath. The white 



Fig. 772. California Tree Elder. 



flowers are densely crowded in the ovoid cymes. The fruit is bright red, about 

 5 mm. in diameter. 



3. MEXICAN ELDER 

 Sambucus mexicana Presl 



This southwestern species, reaching a 

 maximum height of 10 meters, with a trunk 

 diameter of 3 dm., occurs in river valleys and 

 on margins of streams from western Texas 

 westwardly to southern CaHfomia, and south 

 to southern Mexico; it is also called Elder- 

 berry tree. 



The light brown bark is about 6 cm. thick 

 and scaly. The twigs are hght green, more 

 or less hairy, becoming brownish red. The 

 leaves, borne on stout leaf-stalks 2.5 to 3 cm. 

 long, are usually hairy on both sides, especially 

 so beneath, or become nearly smooth when 

 old. The leaflets, usually 5 in number, are thick and firm, ovate to ovate-lanceo- 



FiG. 773. Mexican Elder. 



