Native plant identification key for the
Palos Verdes Peninsula, California


Leaves odd foliate (containing a terminal leaflet), with 3-9 leaflets, the whole leaf structure 3-20 cm long. Leaflets elliptic (oval) to ovate (egg-shaped, wider toward the base) with finely toothed margins, and their axes are often curving, creating an asymmetrical base. The leaflets taper to a sharp tip. The leaflets can be glabrous (smooth-surfaced) or hairy, and they tend to be a bright to medium green. Flowers are in a distinctive flat- topped inflorescence or flower cluster, about 4-33 cm in diameter, containing many small white, cream, or pale yellow-white individual flowers. These have 5 sepals and 5 white stamens with pale yellow anthers (pollen-bearing structures) and a 5 lobed white corolla. Blooms from March to September. Fruit is an edible black berry with a whitish bloom to it (glaucous), giving it a blue cast. Plant is a very tall shrub, typically 2-8 m tall, treelike except for the lack of a single dominant trunk in nearly all specimens. The 2 or more main stems have a thick brown-grey stringy bark. It favors stream banks or other places where soil water may be concentrated. It is found throughout western North America from British Columbia to Mexico below 3000 m elevation.

Sambucus mexicana aka S. nigra subsp. caerulea aka S. caerulea (Caprifoliaceae): Mexican elderberry or blue elderberry


First placed on web: 08/02/11
Last revised: 08/02/11
Christine M. Rodrigue, Ph.D., Department of Geography, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-1101
rodrigue@csulb.edu

The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.