Species
+

Ardisia crenata Sims

Australian holly, Christmas berry, Coralberry Tree, Gewürzbeere

Climate known 69 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ardisia crenata is a species of flowering plant in the primrose family, Primulaceae, that is native to East Asia. It is known by a variety of names such as Christmas berry, coral ardisia, coral bush, coralberry, coralberry tree, hen's-eyes, and spiceberry. A. crenata is a compact shrub that reaches 1 metre (3.3 ft), often with a single stem. Leaves are dark green, thick, glossy, and have tightly waved edges. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ardisia crenata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ardisia

Ardisia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. It was in the former Myrsinaceae family now recognised as the myrsine sub-family Myrsinoideae. They are distributed in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, mainly in the tropics. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ardisia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
Sims
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +15
Wild records
620 in range· 305 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1925mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 287 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1925 mm a year, wettest June at 287 mm, driest December at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ardisia contrecasii Lundell; Ardisia crenata f. taguetii (Nakai) Ohwi; Ardisia crenata var. crenata; Ardisia lentiginosa KerGawl.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1379 mm of 1925 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 17.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1925 mm a year, wettest June at 287 mm, driest December at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1925 mm a year at the habitat, 1379 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 287 mm, driest December at 50 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1363 mm to 3453 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -7.3 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.0 °C to 13.7 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Aug; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1925 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 459 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost27.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–34RH 59–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 459 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 7–1912 / 8–2016 / 11–2221 / 16–2624 / 19–2826 / 22–3028 / 24–3229 / 24–3226 / 22–3022 / 19–2718 / 14–2413 / 9–20
Night °C4 / -1–145 / -0–158 / 3–1713 / 9–2017 / 13–2320 / 16–2523 / 18–2624 / 17–2620 / 16–2416 / 12–2210 / 7–196 / 2–15
Rain mm67 / 22–13788 / 30–175141 / 51–213175 / 97–259236 / 134–370287 / 166–487242 / 150–445229 / 137–475210 / 93–490120 / 63–31480 / 42–21350 / 21–148
DLI17 / 14–2220 / 15–2425 / 18–3030 / 23–3431 / 27–3630 / 28–3434 / 29–3732 / 30–3528 / 24–3124 / 19–2819 / 16–2416 / 14–22
RH %61 / 55–6762 / 55–6763 / 57–6863 / 58–6864 / 60–6966 / 63–7066 / 61–7166 / 62–7064 / 61–6961 / 59–6860 / 57–6759 / 55–66

Each figure is the median across the 459 grid cells holding the 599 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1308:6028 (24.575, 121.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 459 distinct grid cells holding the 599 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1308:6028 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.50_121.250, lapse-corrected +237 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1457 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Philippines· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, Lesser Sunda Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Hawaii, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.504, 121.115 · in the densest population, 299 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 620 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 305 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2054 km away. 986 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 620 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ardisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenataArdisia crenata

Photographs: (c) Alex Abair, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ardisia crenata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Saponins as cytotoxic agents: a review
Irma Podolak, Agnieszka Galanty, Danuta Sobolewska (2010) · Phytochemistry Reviews
Syringic acid (SA) ‒ A Review of Its Occurrence, Biosynthesis, Pharmacological and Industrial Importance
Srinivasulu Cheemanapalli, Ramgopal Mopuri, Golla Ramanjaneyulu, C. M. Anuradha (2018) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
The experimental power of FR900359 to study Gq-regulated biological processes
Ramona Schrage, Anna-Lena Schmitz, Evelyn Gaffal, Suvi Annala (2015) · Nature Communications
Terpenoids as potential chemopreventive and therapeutic agents in liver cancer
Roslin J. Thoppil (2011) · World Journal of Hepatology
Members of the genus Burkholderia: good and bad guys
Leo Eberl, Peter Vandamme (2016) · F1000Research
Faster returns on ‘leaf economics’ and different biogeochemical niche in invasive compared with native plant species
Josep Peñuelas, Jordi Sardans, Joan Llusià, Susan M. Owen (2009) · Global Change Biology
Tree diversity promotes insect herbivory in subtropical forests of south‐east China
Andreas Schuldt, Martín Baruffol, Martin Böhnke, Helge Bruelheide (2010) · Journal of Ecology
Advances in MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging Single Cell and Tissues
Xiaoping Zhu, Tianyi Xu, Peng Chen, Shihua Wu (2022) · Frontiers in Chemistry
Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Mulam people in Guangxi, China
Renchuan Hu, CHUN-RUI LIN, Wei‐Bin Xu, Yan Liu (2020) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ardisia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.