Adoxa - Moschatel
Sambucus - Elder
Viburnum - Viburnum
The Adoxaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Dipsacales, as now constituted comprising three genera and about 150-200 species. It is characterised by opposite leaves, small five-petalled flowers in dense umbels or panicles, and the fruit being a berry.
In older classifications, the family comprised the single species Adoxa moschatellina (Moschatel). The genera Sambucus (elders) and Viburnum (viburnums) were previously included in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, but genetic tests by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group showed they are better placed here.
Moschatel is a small perennial herbaceous plant, flowering early in the spring and dying down to ground level in summer immediately after the berries are mature; the leaves ate compound.
The elders are mostly shrubs, but two species are large herbaceous plants; all have compound leaves. The viburnums are all shrubs, with simple leaves.
Sambucus canadensis foliage and fruit