Color may be orange, red, purple, or yellowish. BARK on larger shrubs is shaggy and medium gray or brown. SIZE rarely gets over 20 feet tall and there are often multiple stems. Berries, Brown Stems, Bad Odor Family Caprifoliaceae. Red elderberry has large purple BUD and a large, brown, soft PITH .
Common elderberry has smaller brown-green buds and a large, white, soft pith.
Click on the blue to return to the Deciduous Summer Key or the Deciduous Winter Key . Click HERE to return to the home page. A note about the images on this website, click here . This site created and maintained by Bill Cook, MSU Extension Forester for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Editing and modification is ongoing.