When does American black elderberry bloom in North Carolina?

Most often in May. Across 135 dated, research-grade observations of Sambucus canadensis in North Carolina, the flowering season runs roughly May to June.

Peak May In flower 135 Examined 221 State North Carolina

Flowering 135 in flower of 221 examined

86%

84%

60%

12%

Proportion of examined Sambucus canadensis in North Carolina in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	0	0	too few examined
Feb	0	2	too few examined
Mar	0	7	0%	0% to 35%
Apr	0	4	too few examined
May	36	42	86%	72% to 93%
Jun	69	82	84%	75% to 90%
Jul	27	45	60%	45% to 73%
Aug	3	26	12%	4% to 29%
Sep	0	13	0%	0% to 23%
Oct	0	0	too few examined
Nov	0	0	too few examined
Dec	0	0	too few examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Sambucus canadensis in North Carolina 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. 135 of 221 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 North Carolina found Sambucus canadensis in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in North Carolina, 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 North Carolina. 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.