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Sambucus australasica; photograph (c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-13

Sambucus australasica (Lindl.) Fritsch

Australian native elder; Native Elder; Yellow Elderberry; Native elderberry

Viburnaceae · New South Wales, Queensland +1

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Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sambucus australasica, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) 66 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.5°C
Record low 3.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,094mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sambucus australasica, commonly known as yellow elderberry, native elderberry or native elder, is a species of flowering plant in the family Viburnaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with pinnate leaves that have coarse teeth on their edges, small white flowers with three petals, and yellow fruit. It is usually found in and on the edges of rainforest.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sambucus australasica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Sambucus

Sambucus is a genus of between 20 and 30 species of flowering plants in the family Viburnaceae. The various species are commonly referred to as elder, with the flowers as elderflower, and the fruit as elderberry. The genus is represented by species native to most parts of the world, including Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia, and has been distributed to other temperate and subtropical climates.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sambucus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (811 mm of 1,062 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 11.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

Rain

1,062 mm in the median year at the habitat, 811 mm of it October to May. Wettest month February at 140 mm, driest month August at 56 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 820 mm to 1,537 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,094 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,062 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.5 °C, the absolute minimum 3.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 2.5 °C to 10.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.5 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +49 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sambucus australasica through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.6 °C; 1,062 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°30.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–42RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 439 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 24–2825 / 23–2723 / 21–2620 / 18–2318 / 15–2015 / 12–1814 / 11–1816 / 13–1919 / 16–2221 / 18–2523 / 20–2625 / 22–28
Night °C17 / 14–2017 / 14–2015 / 12–1912 / 9–169 / 6–147 / 4–116 / 3–106 / 3–119 / 6–1311 / 8–1513 / 10–1715 / 12–19
Rain mm102 / 70–178140 / 84–216104 / 62–18391 / 63–15485 / 58–13477 / 51–11461 / 43–8656 / 39–7557 / 41–7281 / 65–103105 / 82–141103 / 80–168
DLI41 / 39–4335 / 34–3831 / 30–3324 / 23–2719 / 17–2216 / 14–2018 / 16–2224 / 22–2832 / 29–3537 / 36–3940 / 39–4242 / 40–43
RH %62 / 59–6463 / 60–6663 / 60–6662 / 60–6461 / 59–6360 / 58–6359 / 57–6157 / 55–5956 / 54–5958 / 55–6060 / 57–6261 / 58–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 439 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (675 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2526:6600 (-36.325, 150.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 439 distinct grid cells holding 675 of the 676 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2526:6600 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.50_150.000, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 244 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland, Victoria · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-34.594, 150.645 · in the densest population, 418 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 754 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 675 of them in the land cells it reads, of 676 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 695 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 78 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 754 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sambucus australasica, photograph 1did not loadSambucus australasica, photograph 2did not loadSambucus australasica, photograph 3did not loadSambucus australasica, photograph 4did not loadSambucus australasica, photograph 5did not loadSambucus australasica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) O.Neate, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Senecio bipinnatisectus Senecio bipinnatisectus Australian fireweed Photo: CC BY, William HarlandPyrrosia rupestris Pyrrosia rupestris Rock Felt Fern Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallanLiparis reflexa Liparis reflexa Dog Orchid Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandAcacia elata Acacia elata Cedar wattle Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloCeratopetalum apetalum Ceratopetalum apetalum Coachwood Photo: CC BY, Sofia ZvolanekHakea laevipes Hakea laevipes Broad-leaved Hakea Photo: CC BY, Petra Holland

Other Sambucus 18 in the reference

Sambucus adnata Sambucus adnata Viburnaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VinayarajSambucus australis Sambucus australis Southern elder Photo: CC BY, Felipe HortonSambucus canadensis Sambucus canadensis American elder Photo: CC BY-SA, Fluff BergerSambucus cerulea Sambucus cerulea Blue elderberry Photo: CC BY, Gavin SlaterSambucus ebulus Sambucus ebulus Dwarf elder Photo: CC BY, АннаSambucus gaudichaudiana Sambucus gaudichaudiana White Elderberry Photo: CC BY, Ian RainbowSambucus javanica Sambucus javanica Chinese elder Photo: CC0, author not statedSambucus kamtschatica Sambucus kamtschatica Kamchatka elder Photo: CC BY, Tatyana PetrenkoSambucus lanceolata Sambucus lanceolata Viburnaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozSambucus mexicana Sambucus mexicana Blue Elderberry Photo: CC BY, Ian McFaulSambucus nigra Sambucus nigra Elder Photo: CC0, author not statedSambucus palmensis Sambucus palmensis Canary Islands elder Photo: CC BY, Vítor Jorge all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sambucus xanthocarpa; Tripetelus australasicus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Viburnaceae
Described by
(Lindl.) Fritsch
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria
Wild records
754 in range · 695 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.50_150.000, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Sambucus australasica (Lindl.) Fritsch (the item's: IPNI 149294-1, POWO 61882-3)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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