SAMBUCUS SPECIES IN CHINA
In the world it is well-known that Sambucus elderberry is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. It was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified with recent genetic research. It contains between 5 and 30 species of deciduous shrubs, small trees and herbaceous perennial plants. The leaves are pinnate with 5–9 leaflets (rarely 3 or 11). Each leaf is 5–30cm long and the leaflets have serrated margins. They bear large clusters of small white or cream-colored flowers in late spring; these are followed by clusters of small black, blue-black, or red berries (rarely yellow or white). The black-berried elder complex is treated as single speciesSambucus nigra, found in the warmer parts of Europe and North America with several regional varieties and subspecies. The flowers are in flat corymbs, and the berries range from black to glaucous blue. The plants are larger shrubs, reaching 3–8m tall, and occasionally small trees up to 15m tall with a stem diameter of up to 30-60cm.
Sambucus are deciduous trees or shrubs or perennial herbs; Shoots are smooth, striate, or warty, with stout pith, and stems often lenticel, with well-developed marrow. Leaves have an odd number pinnate, opposite stipules with leafy or degraded glands. Inflorescence by Cymose synthesis is an acrogenous complex umbrella or cone, leaflets are serrate or divided, opposite or alternate. Flowers are small and white or a yellowish-white color, short calyx tubes, five calyx teeth, a five-lobed corolla rotate, five stamens, shorter filaments, exposed anthers, ovaries, a short style or almost no stigma and lobes between two or three. Berries can be red, yellow or purple with three to five seeds, seed shape is prismatic or oval and embryo length is same as endosperm length.
There may be 11 species of elderberry in China (Flora of China, Flora of Heilongjiang, Flora of Inner-Mongolia) and grow from temperate to subtropical regions and tropical mountains. It is not clear when theSambucus NigraLinn European e lderberry and Sambucus Canadian Linn American elderberry were brought into China (Beijing Shanghai, Shandong and Jiangsu Province).
Pollen morphology is of great significance in taxonomy, phylogeny, and paleobotany. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies on pollen from cultivated fruit trees have been carried out for taxonomic purposes and cultivar identification. A pollen diagnosis for our 3 popular elderberry species investigated, European elderberry(Sambucus Nigra Linn ), American elderberry (Sambucus Canadian Linn ) and Chinese Woody-elderberry (Sambucus wiiliamsii ) been made through scanning electron microscopy, are presented below Fig 1 and Fig 2