Scientist requesting your help with elderberry study

By Joshua Neely

Elder fruit

I hope that you may be able to help me. I am seeking one or more populations of elder (Sambucus nigra or Sambucus canadensis) in the St. Louis/St. Charles area for an unfunded genetic study.

I welcome populations that are either cultivated or wild.

I have included pictures of elders (sometimes called elderberries) with fruit as well as the overall plant.

I will use the population to look for variation in the timing of spring/summer reproductive events and other reproductive characters.

Elder habit and flower

This work will produce norms of reaction for the species in this geographic area, which are useful for understanding what component of variation is due to environmental influence. It may also lead to future studies into genomics or experimental genetics, the goal of which would be to determine how heredity influences variation.

I am a population biologist and professor at Lindenwood University, recently arrived here from Marquette, Michigan. I am interested in the elder, in both its reproductive biology and the rise of its fruit as a consumer product.

If you have any elders to report or any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at my email address: jneely@lindenwood.edu. Thank you so much for your help.