Anyone know what this plant is?

Seems to grow everywhere, not sure if it is native or what. If it isn't native I might try removing a bunch of them.

It might be elderberry.

as has been said it looks like elderberry

Might try posting bark, if it is elderberry, then that is nice I suppose. Never used it before. I thought that "may" be it, but I didn't want to try harvesting anything toxic. Will still wait a bit to make sure.

Garrett, what time of the year was that picture taken?  Just wondering if that is what it looks like now or if that picture was taken in the summer. Also, how tall is it?  I'm wondering what the maximum height is of it that you've run across.  Also, if it's elderberry then cutting a branch should demonstrate that it has hollow stems filled with a spongy central material.

yeah it could be elderberry, it could also be aralia - spikenard.
the california spikenard looks a lot like elderberry.

but i think that's elderberry.

i often confuse those two unless i get up close. and obviously elderberries eventually produce elderberries =) so thats a big clue =)

Greg Martin wrote:Garrett, what time of the year was that picture taken?  Just wondering if that is what it looks like now or if that picture was taken in the summer. Also, how tall is it?  I'm wondering what the maximum height is of it that you've run across.  Also, if it's elderberry then cutting a branch should demonstrate that it has hollow stems filled with a spongy central material.

Just took those today, went outside and got more pictures just now. Some were cleared out to redo a trail. So I have a few that might help identify better.

Might be elderberry, google has some bark images. I haven't noticed any flowers though.

its elderberry. thank you for the photos.

Thanks, seems to be elderberry. Might try using these now or something.

Garrett, I agree based on your pictures that those are elderberries, but I'm going to go with red elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, rather than the elderberry that people typically eat, the American elderberry, Sambucus canadensis.  

Red elderberry flowers much earlier than American elderberry and the flower buds are purplish like yours while American elderberry has white flower buds that come out much later.  Neither would be in berry this early, though yours must be ahead of mine since I'm up here in Maine.  I use my American elderberry fruit and flowers every year, but I haven't tried red elderberry yet because I hear they aren't all that good.  I only haven't removed it from my forest garden (it's a wild volunteer) because I haven't yet needed that space and the wildlife might enjoy it, so for now I'm using it as a scaffold for thicket beans to grow up (I'm trying to cross thicket beans with runner beans hoping to get hardy perennial runner beans).

Here are pictures of red and American elderberries I just took from my forest garden for comparison:

Here are some flowers, which are now opening. They look nice up close. I might try some Phaseolus Polystachios plants around these, bought a few seeds a few weeks ago. Lot of huge shrub forms of this growing in the woods. I believe it has some medicinal properties, and I don't have anything else to really plant in place of them. So keeping them for now, maybe birds here will enjoy them. Pretty sure they are red elderberry, like you said based on the flowers.

It is a pretty plant Garrett.  The red berries are quite striking.  If you want any American elderberries I'd be happy to send cuttings for rooting.