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Sambucus palmensis; photograph Vítor Jorge, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYVítor Jorge, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Sambucus palmensis Link

Canary Islands elder; Sauco

Viburnaceae · Canary Is.

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Sambucus palmensis, photograph Vítor Jorge, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSambucus palmensis, photograph Oriol Sastre, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSambucus palmensis, photograph Oriol Sastre, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSambucus palmensis, photograph Oriol Sastre, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSambucus palmensis, photograph Christian Berg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSambucus palmensis, photograph Christian Berg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 15 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.1°C
Record low 8.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
467mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–49DLI
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
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sambucus palmensis is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Viburnaceae. It is endemic to the Canary Islands and is present in the laurel forest. It can reach 6 m tall and yields blackish berries.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sambucus palmensis", 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 a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (371 mm of 495 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.6 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

495 mm in the median year at the habitat, 371 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 104 mm, driest month July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 415 mm to 700 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 467 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 495 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 49 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.1 °C, the absolute minimum 8.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.6 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 7.8 °C to 15.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.1 °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: 54 to 62% 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 +620 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sambucus palmensis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 12.6 °C; 495 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, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°22.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 21–49RH 54–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 23 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 °C15 / 11–1715 / 12–1616 / 13–1716 / 13–1717 / 15–1820 / 19–2023 / 21–2423 / 22–2421 / 20–2320 / 17–2118 / 14–2016 / 12–18
Night °C13 / 7–1613 / 8–1513 / 9–1514 / 10–1615 / 11–1718 / 14–1920 / 17–2221 / 18–2220 / 16–2118 / 13–2015 / 11–1814 / 9–17
Rain mm66 / 57–9268 / 59–10757 / 49–7830 / 21–4013 / 6–165 / 1–83 / 0–55 / 2–615 / 8–2153 / 40–7976 / 65–111104 / 71–154
DLI23 / 19–2529 / 25–3137 / 34–3942 / 41–4446 / 45–4849 / 47–5048 / 46–4944 / 43–4639 / 36–4031 / 28–3324 / 20–2621 / 17–23
RH %60 / 49–6360 / 49–6558 / 47–6461 / 48–6661 / 46–6759 / 41–6854 / 34–6855 / 37–6759 / 46–6762 / 52–6761 / 52–6562 / 52–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 23 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (45 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1238:3288 (28.075, -15.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.0 °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 23 distinct grid cells holding 45 of the 48 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1238:3288 (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 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +620 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 729 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.
NativeCanary Is. · 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 marker28.157, -17.287 · in the densest population, 122 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 122 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 45 of them in the land cells it reads, of 48 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 14 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 36 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 74 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 of the 122 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 palmensis, photograph 1did not loadSambucus palmensis, photograph 2did not loadSambucus palmensis, photograph 3did not loadSambucus palmensis, photograph 4did not loadSambucus palmensis, photograph 5did not loadSambucus palmensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Vítor Jorge, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Oriol Sastre, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Christian Berg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Erica canariensis Erica canariensis Canary tree heath Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeCedronella canariensis Cedronella canariensis Canary Islands balm Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieBystropogon canariensis Bystropogon canariensis Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Heras GonzálezBystropogon origanifolius Bystropogon origanifolius Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Ismael Medina RodríguezPersea indica Persea indica Madeira Mahogany Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat HinczewskiArbutus canariensis Arbutus canariensis Canary Islands Strawberry tree Photo: CC BY, Elizabete Marchante

Other Sambucus 18 in the reference

Sambucus adnata Sambucus adnata Viburnaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VinayarajSambucus australasica Sambucus australasica Australian native elder Photo: CC BY-SA, O.NeateSambucus 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 stated all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sambucus nigra subsp. palmensis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Viburnaceae
Described by
Link
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
122 in range · 14 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +620 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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