Calle de Saúco
Bears the name of the elder, a wild shrub with white flowers and black berries, common in the riverbanks and damp hedgerows of Europe.
The elder grows where water runs: along riverbanks, in damp hedgerows, at the edge of paths. It is a branching shrub that can rise to ten metres, with clusters of white flowers in spring and black berries at the end of summer. Its name comes from the Latin sambucus, related to the sambuca, a stringed instrument the Romans made from its light wood.
From that soft wood children made whistles; from its flowers, infusions for colds. Spanish folk medicine turned to elder flower against toothache.
The calle de Saúco belongs to the group of Berruguete streets named after trees, a common custom in the neighbourhoods that grew north of Madrid during the twentieth century. No record survives of why the elder in particular was chosen.