''Viburnum elatum'' is a species of

woody plant A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposite to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until sp ...

in the family

Adoxaceae Adoxaceae, commonly known as moschatel family, is a small family of flowering plants in the order Dipsacales, now consisting of five genera and about 150–200 species. They are characterised by opposite toothed leaves, small five- or, more rare ...

(previously

Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Centres of diversity are found in eastern North America an ...

).Muller, C. H. (1939). Donoghue, M. J., Eriksson, T., Reeves, P. A., & Olmstead, R. G. (2001). Phylogeny and phylogenetic taxonomy of Dipsacales, with special reference to Sinadoxa and Tetradoxa (Adoxaceae). Harvard Papers in Botany, 6(2), 459-480.
accessed 08.14.2013.
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group places Viburnum within Adoxaceae, accessed 08.14.2013. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to eastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

.Morton, C. V. (1933). The Mexican and Central American species of Viburnum.
accessed 08.13.2013.

Description

''Viburnum elatum'' grows as a

semi-evergreen Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical woody spe ...

, multi-stemmed shrub or small

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

.Donoghue, M.J. 1997. Viburnum. A flora of the Chihuahuan Desert region; M.D. Johnston (ed.) privately published.
accessed 08.13.2013.

Branches A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually r ...

stout, pale brown,

terete Terete is a term in botany used to describe a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.Lichen Vocabulary, Lichens of North America Information, Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff/ref> This is u ...

, smooth, not shining,

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

; branchlets similar, very slender, slightly angular, black-punctate; buds glabrous; leaves opposite, petiolate, the petiole 1 cm long or less, deeply channelled above, winged to base, glabrous, black-punctate; blades ovate to lanceolate, small (the larger 6 cm long, 3 cm wide), acute or bluntly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, entire or minutely serrulate, almost concolorous, glabrous, conspicuously black-punctate beneath; principal

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

5 to 7, inconspicuous, scarcely if at all elevated beneath, arcuate and anastomosing; peduncle none; cyme thrice compound, up to 3 cm long and 6.5 cm wide, the primary rays 4 or 5, about 1.5 cm long, glabrous, black-punctate; bractlets of inflorescence minute, 1 mm long or less, glabrous, those subtending the lowers about one-fourth as long as the calyx tube; calyx tube cylindric, about 2 mm long, glabrous; calyx lobes rounded, minute (about 0.5 mm long), glabrous; corolla white, rotate-campanulate, about 3 mm long, glabrous;

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

glabrous;

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

much flattened, black, about 10 mm long, 8 mm wide, and 3 mm thick, fleshy, not

sulcate Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...

on either face, the intrusion absent.

Distribution and habitat

''Viburnum elatum'' is native to the Mexican Sierra Madre Oriental, from Nuevo Léon and

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

to Chiapas. ''V. elatum'' inhabits mesic pine-oak forests above 1000 meters (3300 feet).Muller, C. H. (1939). Relations of the vegetation and climatic types in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. American Midland Naturalist, 687-729.
accessed 08.13.2013.

Taxonomy and evolution

The generic name originated in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, where it referred to '' V. lantana''. The specific epithet ''elatum'' is derived from Latin '' elatus'', meaning "elevated". ''Viburnum elatum'' is related to the nannyberry and blackhaw viburnums of

eastern North America The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America ...

, including '' V. cassinoides'', '' V. lentago'', '' V. nudum'', '' V. obovatum'', '' V. prunifolium'', and '' V. rufidulum''.Clement, W. L., & Donoghue, M. J. (2012). Barcoding success as a function of phylogenetic relatedness in Viburnum, a clade of woody angiosperms. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12(1), 73.
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-73.

Conservation

Though the most geographically widespread species of ''Viburnum'' in Mexico, ''V. elatum'' is considered rare, and is listed as

conservation dependent A conservation-dependent species is a species which has been categorised as "Conservation Dependent" ("LR/cd") by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), i.e. as dependent on conservation efforts to prevent it from becoming e ...

by the IUCN.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5438488 elatum Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of Chiapas Flora of Tamaulipas Flora of the Sierra Madre Oriental Conservation dependent plants Near threatened biota of Mexico Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Cloud forest flora of Mexico