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Positive indirect effects of consumers on their resources can stabilize food webs by preventing overexploitation, but the coupling of trophic and non‐trophic interactions remains poorly integrated into our understanding of community dynamics. Elephants engineer African savanna ecosystems by toppling trees and breaking branches, and although their negative effects on trees are well documented, their effects on small‐statured plants remain poorly understood. Using data on 117 understory plant taxa collected over 7 yr within 36 1‐ha experimental plots in a semi‐arid Kenyan savanna, we measured the strength and direction of elephant impacts on understory vegetation. We found that elephants had neutral effects on most (83–89%) species, with a similar frequency of positive and negative responses among the remainder. Overall, estimated understory biomass was 5–14% greater in the presence of elephants …