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Key I: woody plants with opposite, compound leaves
9 Leaflets serrate; flowers white, yellow, or red; fruit a leatherycapsule, irregularly spheroidal, 2-9 cm in diameter, with 1-3 (-6) large seeds, each with a large pale hilum contrasting with the dark brown color of the rest of the seed
9 Leaflets entire; flowers blue, pink, or purple; fruit either a 4-seeded drupe, < 0.5 cm in diameter, or an elongated capsule, 8-10 cm long and ca. 0.7 cm in diameter.
10 Leaflets < 3× as long as wide, broadly rounded at the tip; fruit an elongated capsule, 8-10 cm long and ca. 0.7 cm in diameter [peninsular FL]
13 Leaves 3-7-foliolate and strictly 1-pinnate; leaflets with a few very coarse teeth; 1st year stems green; fruit a pair of winged, asymmetrical samaroid mericarps
13 Leaves 3-15-foliolate, 1-pinnate or partially 2-pinnate; leaflets evenly serrate with many teeth or entire; 1st year stems tan to brown (very new growth may be green); fruit either a symmetrical (winged) samara (Fraxinus) or a purplish-black, many-seeded berry (Sambucus).
14 Fruit a purplish-black or red, 4-seeded berry (Sambucus); plant a shrub or small tree; stems hollow or pithy; petiole prominently grooved on the upper side; fresh leaves somewhat fleshy in texture
14 Fruit either a green or tan, symmetrical (winged) samara or a blackish 5-seeded dryish drupe; plant a small to large tree; stems solid and woody; petiole nearly round in ×-section (not grooved); fresh leaves membranaceous or coriaceous in texture.
15 Fruit a symmetrical samara; axillary buds suprapetiolar (though sometimes almost hidden within the strongly U-shaped petiolar attachment; [common native (also planted)]