Sambucus nigra L.
Eng.: Elder, elderberry. Spa.: Saúco, sabuco. Fre.: Sureau noir. Ara.: Khiluant, khiruan, khaman, bilaçan, balaçan, sembuqa, chbuka, bu ruabez, ud trateq, wijjan. Tam.: Akhiluan, agueridd, Ilmichki, turuagt, burruabes, timermenna, aruari, taurira, liruri, tichki, ahlij.
Deciduous shrub, hermaphrodite, very ramose (it sometimes becomes a tree), reaching up to 5 m in height. Crown rounded, relatively dense. When it is a small tree, stem is usually almost straight, with wrinkled bark, suberose, fissured, brown-greyish, with characteristic scales or white lenticels. Branches with bark slightly or not fissured, greyish, with abundant white pith. Branchlets greyish-greenish, and totally green towards the end. Leaves large, compound, imparipinnate, with 5-7 leaflets 5-20 × 2.5-10 cm, ovate-lanceolate, with serrated margin and acute apex, glabrous on the upper side and somewhat hairy on the underside. Stipules caducous. Flowers small (4-6 mm in diameter), very fragrant, grouped densely in flat corymbiform cymes, first erect then pendulous. Corolla with 5 white petals. Calyx ovoid, fused to the ovary, with 5 acute and equal lobes. Stamens 5. Fruits appear densely grouped in pendulous cymes; small globose berries, first green, then black. Seeds 3-5, oblong and compressed.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
August to September.
Habitat:
It grows in all types of soils, as long as they are humid. Generally, near permanent rivers and streams, in areas of dry and subhumid bioclimate. It withstands cold and lack of direct sunlight; on the other hand, it hardly grows in warm and sunny areas.
Distribution:
This is a rather rare shrub, appearing only in some cool and humid mountainous locations of the Mediterranean region. Absent from the steppe areas, the Saharan Atlas and the Anti-Atlas.
Observations:
For several authors its presence in North Africa is due to old introductions and it has now become naturalised. The other species of the genus in the region is S. ebulus L., a plant with herbaceous stems up to 1.5 m in height and compound leaves, with 7-11 leaflets.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species but widely distributed. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.