When does American black elderberry bloom in Alabama?

Most often in June. Across 272 dated, research-grade observations of Sambucus canadensis in Alabama, the flowering season runs roughly June.

Peak June In flower 272 Examined 950 State Alabama

Flowering 272 in flower of 950 examined

52%

80%

22%

Proportion of examined Sambucus canadensis in Alabama in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	0	16	0%	0% to 19%
Feb	0	36	0%	0% to 10%
Mar	0	108	0%	0% to 3%
Apr	4	106	4%	1% to 9%
May	85	162	52%	45% to 60%
Jun	150	187	80%	74% to 85%
Jul	18	83	22%	14% to 32%
Aug	5	65	8%	3% to 17%
Sep	5	77	6%	3% to 14%
Oct	2	44	5%	1% to 15%
Nov	1	39	3%	0% to 13%
Dec	2	27	7%	2% to 23%

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Sambucus canadensis in Alabama observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 272 of 950 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Alabama found Sambucus canadensis in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Alabama, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Sambucus canadensis

American black elderberry

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Alabama. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.