Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Sambucus ebulus

Other names

Danewort

Family

Adoxaceae

Flowering season

July to October

English distribution

It is scattered throughout the country but is more common

in the South and the Midlands.

See the BSBI distribution map for Dwarf Elder

Habitat

It is an archaeophyte which has become naturalised on

waste ground, by roads and in hedges.

Description

Dwarf Elder is perennial, thicket-forming, rhizomatous

herb growing up to 1.5m.

Flowers are in flat-topped flowerheads up to 10cm.

Individual flowers are up to 1cm and have 5 creamy-

white petals.

The 10 stamens are purple.

There are 3 to 5 short stigmas but no style. 

The fruit is a berry which starts off green and turns

black on ripening.

The leaves are pinnate with leaflets up to 15cm.

There are ovate stipules at the base of the leaves.

The stems are purple.

Dwarf Elder dies down at the end of the year.

There are 2 other elders on this website, Elder 

which is closely related and in in the same genus as

Dwarf Elder, and Ground Elder, which is in an 

unrelated family, the Apiaceae.