elder

This article covers the genre. For the most common native species, see black elder .

elder
Black elder ( Sambucus nigra )
Systematics
Nuclear eudicotyledons Asterids Euasterids II Order : Cardigans (Dipsacales) Family : Musk herb family (Adoxaceae) Genre : elder
Scientific name
Sambucus
L.

The elder ( Sambucus ) form a genus of plants in the musk herb family (Adoxaceae). The genus contains a little more than twenty species worldwide , three of which are native to Central Europe. The best known of these three species is the black elder , which in today's parlance is mostly shortened as "elder", in northern Germany often also as "lilac bush" and in the Palatinate, old Bavaria and Austria as "elder" or in Switzerland and Swabian as "Holder" is called. There is also the shrub- shaped red elder and the perennial dwarf elder . The species grow in temperate to subtropical climates and in higher altitudes of tropical mountains.

description

Illustration from Flora Batava , Volume 18 of the Attich or Little Elder ( Sambucus ebulus )

Vegetative characteristics

Elderberry species are mostly woody plants and grow as subshrubs , shrubs or small trees . They usually reach heights of 1 to 15 meters and are often summer green.

The opposite leaves are pinnate unpaired and consist of three to nine elliptical, mostly serrated leaflets . Sometimes one can see signs of secondary feathering in the pairs of basal plumage. The stipules are large to inconspicuous or absent, sometimes they are reduced to glands or a hairline.

Generative characteristics

Black elderberry inflorescences ( Sambucus nigra )

Floral diagram of Sambucus nigra

Fruits of Sambucus racemosa var. Arborescens

Many flowers stand together in terminal, umbrella- clustered or panicle inflorescences .

The hermaphrodite flowers are usually radial symmetry and three to five-fold with a double flower envelope . The three to five tiny sepals have grown together to form a short tube. The three to five mostly white petals are briefly fused. There is only one circle with five stamens inserted in the base of the crown. The anthers are elongated. Three to five carpels are fused to form a three to five- chamber ovary. There is only one ovule per carpel . The very short style ends in three to five cephalic scars.

The flower formula is . ${\displaystyle \star \;K_{(5)}\;{[C_{(5)}A_{5}]}\;G_{(5-1)}}$

The berry-like stone fruits can be black, blue or red when ripe and contain three to five seeds. The seeds have a membranous testa .

ingredients

The bark and pulp contain calcium oxalate crystals.

Systematics

Fruits of the blue elder ( Sambucus cerulea )

Pinnate leaves and infructescence of Attich or dwarf elder ( Sambucus ebulus )

Sambucus javanica's inflorescence and fruit cluster

Fruits of the stinking elder ( Sambucus racemosa subsp. Pubens )

Red elderberry fruits ( Sambucus racemosa subsp. Racemosa )

The genus name Sambucus was Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, Volume 1, page 269-270 1753 first published . ( Sambucus nigra L. ) was specified as the lectotype .

The position of the genus Sambucus in the plant system has been controversial for a long time. The botanists of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group have now incorporated the genus into the musk herb family (Adoxaceae). Before that, it belonged to the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae) for a long time , from which it differed significantly in numerous respects. The attempt at a new grouping even led to the creation of a separate family Sambucaceae Batsch ex Borkh around 1900 . (published 1797 in Botanical Dictionary , Volume 2, Page 322) was reactivated, so that the genus Sambucus alone formed the monogeneric family Sambucaceae for a long time .

There are just over 20 species of Sambucus (selection):

• Sambucus adnata Wall. ex DC. ( Syn .: Sambucus schweriniana Rehder ): The home is the northern Indian subcontinent and China .
• Sambucus australasica (Lindl.) Fritsch (Syn .: Tripetelus australasicus Lindl. ): The home is eastern Australia .
• Sambucus australis Cham. & Schltdl. : The home is South America from Brazil to Argentina .
• Blue elder ( Sambucus cerulea Raf. , Syn .: Sambucus caerulea Raf. Orth. Var., Sambucus glauca Nutt. , Sambucus mexicana auct. Non C. Presl ex DC. , Sambucus neomexicana Wooton , Sambucus nigra L. subsp. Cerulea (Raf .) Bolli ): The homeland extends from western Canada to Mexico .
• Attich or dwarf elder ( Sambucus ebulus L. ): The distribution ranges from the Macaronesian island of Madeira across northwest Africa and Europe to the north to the geographical latitude of central Germany and further across western Asia and the Caucasus region to Central Asia .
• Sambucus gaudichaudiana DC. : The home is in southeastern Australia and Tasmania .
• Sambucus javanica Reinw. ex Blume (Syn .: Ebulus chinensis (Lindl.) Nakai , Ebulus formosana (Nakai) Nakai , Sambucus argyi H.Lév. , Sambucus chinensis Lindl. , Sambucus formosana Nakai , Sambucus henriana Samutina and Sambucus hookeri Rehder ): The distribution ranges in temperate and subtropical Asia from Japan , Taiwan and China via rear India and the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent to Malesia .
• Sambucus latipinna Nakai : The home is in the Primorye region of the Russian Far East and on the Korean peninsula .
• Sambucus maderensis Lowe : It occurs in Madeira.
• Black elder ( Sambucus nigra L. ): The original distribution extends, without taking into account the subspecies Canadian elder, from northwestern Africa and all of Europe through western Asia and the Caucasus region to northern India . Depending on the author, one or more subspecies are listed:
  • Sambucus canadensis ( Sambucus nigra subsp. Canadensis (L.) Bolli , Syn .: Sambucus canadensis L. , Sambucus mexicana C.Presl ex DC. , Sambucus oreopola Donn.Sm. , Sambucus simpsonii Rehder ): The home is located in the east up to central, southern North America.
• Sambucus palmensis Link (Syn .: Sambucus nigra L. subsp. Palmensis (Link) Bolli ): The home is the Canary Islands .
• Sambucus peruviana Kunth (Syn .: Sambucus nigra L. subsp. Peruviana (Kunth) Bolli ): The home is the Neotropic with Central America and western South America including Argentina.
• Sambucus racemosa L. (syn. Sambucus buergeriana (Nakai) Blume , Sambucus callicarpa Greene , Sambucus coreana . (Nakai) Kom & Aliss. , Sambucus kamtschatica E.L.Wolf , Sambucus melanocarpa A.Gray , Sambucus microbotrys Rydb. , Sambucus sibirica Nakai ): Distributed in Eurasia and North America with several subspecies, variants, and forms; for example:
  • Red elder ( Sambucus racemosa L. subsp. Racemosa ): The home extends from large parts of Europe to the Caucasus region.
  • Smelly elder ( Sambucus racemosa subsp. Pubens ( Michx. ) House , Syn .: Sambucus pubens Michx. , Sambucus pubescens Pers. ): The distribution area is in North America.
  • Japanese elderberry ( Sambucus racemosa subsp. Sieboldiana ( Miq. ) H.Hara , Syn .: Sambucus Sieboldiana (Miq.) Blume ex Graebn. ): Home is Japan and South Korea .
• Sambucus tigranii Troitsky : It occurs in Armenia and Georgia. Some authors also use it as a synonym for Sambucus racemosa .
• Sambucus wightiana Wall. ex Wight & Arn. (Syn .: Sambucus gautschii Wettst. ): The home is in Afghanistan , Pakistan and in northwestern India.
• Sambucus williamsii Hance (Syn .: Sambucus barbinervis Nakai , Sambucus foetidissima Nakai , Sambucus junnanica J.J.Vassil. , Sambucus manshurica Kitag. , Sambucus peninsularis Kitag. , Sambucus potaninii J.J.Vassil. ). The home is China and Korea.

Cultural aspects

Use in prehistoric times

• Foodstuffs and dyes
• Use of the hollow wooden tubes as drills powered by bowstrings
• Starting material for the production of flutes

The elder in religion, myth and superstition or popular belief

Not only trees were the subject of religious, mythological and superstitious or popular beliefs , also other plants such as the elderberry bush, for which both positive and negative connotations can be recorded (see also: Black elder in popular belief ).

Positive connotations

In the Nordic mythology of the Germanic peoples there was the idea that “ Freya , the protector of house and yard, chose the elder bush as her place of residence”. The goddess of springs and wells, Holla , was asked "for the fertility of the fields" under the elder bush. The farmers also believed that they could read off the abundance of the subsequent harvest from the blossom of the elder. The idea that the good spirits lived in the elder was known to Greeks , Romans and Germanic peoples alike, with the result that it was custom "to plant the elder near the house"; but never under the bedroom, as the heavy, sweet scent of the flowers makes you dizzy. In addition, an elderberry cross placed on the grave at the time of burial, which turned green again after a while, was a sign that “the deceased was granted a blissful afterlife”. In the Swiss Alps, the elder tree was also considered the gateway to the afterlife, sung about in Roland Zoss' mythological tree song album .

Negative connotations

The also existing elderberry nickname tree of the devil , however, is connected with Christianity : Judas Iscariot is said to have hanged himself on an elder after betraying Jesus . Other negative connotations associated with the elderberry, which can be described as superstition or popular belief, are:

• A withering elder standing by the house announces the death of a family member.
• Elderberry had not been felled by the farmers - “for fear that the blood of the witch living in it could run out”.
• Elderberry was not removed from fences by the farmers and also not burned, "because, according to a legend, a saint suffered death as a martyr on burning elderwood"
• Due to the ability of witches to transform into an elder branch, furniture was not made from elder wood, nor was it used as a floor covering.
• Children who were placed in an elderberry cradle could fall victim to a robbery by Mrs. Holle .
• The measurements of the coffin and the tomb were done with an elder branch; the coffin driver's whip also consisted of it.

Healing effect

Peter Kurz, Michael Machatschek & Bernhard Igelhauser refer to the elderberry as the “pharmacy of the desert farmer” with a view to the medicinal properties attributed to the elderberry in popular belief and superstition of the rural population. In particular, the “famous lilac tea became a basic component of the so-called farmers pharmacy”. Against this background, the following practices are mentioned:

• The hanging of the elder bush with "skin flaps, pus, nails and teeth of sick people" was considered a measure to consume the evil through the "unrestrained growth" of the elder .
• Entangling the elder was seen by young farmers as a means of combating childlessness.
• Toothache should be transferred to an elder branch by biting it and thus relieve the pain.

The following healing effects linked to certain times and places are to be mentioned:

• The consumption of fried in butter elder umbel at 12 noon at St. John's under the fire hearth , home to the house spirits, was considered a measure by one year to ward off fever for.
• The effect of elderberry tea as an effective remedy for sore throats was linked to the harvest of the flowers before sunrise.
• Three elderberry shoots that broke off before sunrise were considered a remedy for beef lichen .

swell

• E. Nasir: The monogeneric family Sambucaceae (synonym) and genus Sambucus in the Flora of Pakistan . In: eFloras.org. Retrieved December 3, 2010 .  (Section description)

literature

• Richard Bolli: Revision of the Genus Sambucus . In: Dissertationes Botanicae , Volume 223.Swisserbart 1994, ISBN 978-3-443-64135-1 .
• Joachim Schmidt: Elderberry cultivation . Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 1987, ISBN 3-7020-0525-0
• Peter Schütt u. a .: Encyclopedia of Shrubs . Nikol, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-937872-40-X , pp. 343-344.
• Jürgen Udolph :  Elderberry. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016649-6 , pp. 84-90.
• Bill Roschek, Ryan C. Fink, Matthew D. McMichael, Dan Li, Randall S. Alberte: Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro . In: Phytochemistry . tape 70 , no. July 10 , 2009, ISSN  1873-3700 , p. 1255-1261 , doi : 10.1016 / j.phytochem.2009.06.003 , PMID 19682714 (elderberries prevent virus infection H1N1 ).

Web links

Commons : Elderberry ( Sambucus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Elderberry  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Carmen Ulloa Ullua, Peter Møller Jørgensen: Description of the genus Sambucus in trees and bushes of the Andes of Ecuador. In: eFloras.org. Retrieved February 16, 2010 (Spanish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Qiner Yang, David E. Boufford: Adoxaceae. : Sambucus , pp. 611–612 - the same text online as the printed work In: Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (ed.): Flora of China. Volume 19: Cucurbitaceae through Valerianaceae, with Annonaceae and Berberidaceae. Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis, 2011, ISBN 978-1-935641-04-9 .
2. ↑ Sambucus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
3. ↑ ^{a b} G.J. Harden: Genus Sambucus. In: New South Wales Flora Online. Retrieved January 27, 2012 (English). 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} E. von Raab-Straube (2017+): Viburnaceae. : Datasheet Viburnaceae In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity.
5. ^ ^{A b c} Peter Kurz, Michael Machatschek, Bernhard Igelhauser: Hedges. History and ecology. Creation, conservation & use . 1st edition. Stocker, Graz and Stuttgart 2001, p. 370 .
6. ↑ See e.g. B. Wilhelm Vollmer: Dr. Vollmer's dictionary of the mythologists of all peoples . With an introduction to mythological science. 3. Edition. Carl Hoffman, Stuttgart 1874, p. 31 .
7. ^ ^{A b} Peter Kurz, Michael Machatschek, Bernhard Igelhauser: Hedges. History and ecology. Creation, conservation & use . 1st edition. Stocker, Graz and Stuttgart 2001, p. 371-372 .
8. ↑ Peter Kurz, Michael Machatschek, Bernhard Igelhauser: Hedges. History and ecology. Creation, conservation & use . 1st edition. Stocker, Graz and Stuttgart 2001, p. 371 .
9. ^ ^{A b} Peter Kurz, Michael Machatschek, Bernhard Igelhauser: Hedges. History and ecology. Creation, conservation & use . 1st edition. Stocker, Graz and Stuttgart 2001, p. 372 .