An endless source of frustration for gardeners, casual plant lovers, and even professional botanists is the endless name changing game, which seems to be more about some taxonomist somewhere seeing their name in print than providing a nomenclature that is useful and stable. If the botanical “code” like the zoological “code” didn’t allow the “authors” of new plant names to have their initials after the name, then botanical nomenclature would be much more stable (in my opinion). Sometimes, however, it just comes down to the preference of either “lumpers” or “splitters.”  The lumpers like to stick everything together under one roof. Splitters like to give every little nuance a separate identity. In 1994 R. Bolli did a an exercise in lumping called “Revision of the Genus Sambucus” [elderberries] (Diss. Bot. 223; 1-227, pl. 1-29). I imagine Bolli had good reasons for reducing many familiar elder species to subspecies of Sambucus nigra beyond seeing his name at the end of the new names. In Flora of Missouri Vol 2. (2006, Missouri Botanical Garden Press), George Yatskievych characterizes Bolli’s treatment of the Sambucus nigra six subspecies as a “very broadly circumscribed vision of that species”, and instead uses the pre-Bolli taxonomic designations. However, the government databases Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) uses Bolli and USDA’s Germplasm Resouces Information Network (GRIN) uses pre-Bolli nomenclatural treatments. Recent works also place Sambucus in various botanical families including the Caprifoliaceae, Sambucaceae and Adoxaceae. We await new volumes with treatments of Sambucus in the English edition of Flora of China and volume 18 of Flora of North America to see how the genus will be treated in those works. Plant lovers must understand that botanical nomenclature is a “science of opinion.” Can’t the powers that be in botanical taxonomy create a taxonomic “supreme court” to arbitrate these opinions or appoint a “supreme leader” of taxonomic nonsense to give us struggling botanical peons some sense of right and wrong? For now, I’m sticking with the old tried and true nomenclature, just because, hey if there’s a “L.” as the authority of the name, I’l still put my trust in Linnaeus. His motives were not clouded by the need to publish or perish. We have new photo galleries of elder (Sambucus species) at the links below using the old nomenclature, which I “publish” (a dubious word in relation to the internet), in hopes that someone might license one or two images so that I don’t perish. . . .

Sambucus canadensis

Sambucus cerulea

Sambucus chinensis

Sambucus ebulus

Sambucus mexicana

Sambucus nigra