Species
+

Aspidistra elatior Blume

Cast iron plant, Cast-iron-plant, ba-ran, barroom plant

Climate known 50 photographs
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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

Aspidistra elatior, the cast-iron-plant or bar-room plant, also known in Japanese as haran or baran (葉蘭) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Japan and Taiwan. Tolerant of neglect, it is widely cultivated as a houseplant, but can also be grown outside in shade where temperatures remain above −15 °C (5 °F). It is used as training material for the seika form of ikebana.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aspidistra elatior”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aspidistra

Aspidistra is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Convallarioideae, native to eastern and southeastern Asia, particularly China and Vietnam. They grow in shade under trees and shrubs. Their leaves arise more or less directly from ground level, where their flowers also appear. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Blume
Native to
Japan
Wild records
152 in range· 111 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1775mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 230 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–34DLI
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 October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1775 mm a year, wettest September at 230 mm, driest December at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.1 °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 Aspidistra elatior var. elatior.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October 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 (1327 mm of 1775 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.0 °C against a yearly mean of 15.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

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 1775 mm a year, wettest September at 230 mm, driest December at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1775 mm a year at the habitat, 1327 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 230 mm, driest December at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1452 mm to 2740 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: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 2.1 °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 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 7 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.0 °C to 6.0 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °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: 56 to 68% 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 8 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1775 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 114 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.7 °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°frost28.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–34RH 56–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 114 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 °C8 / 7–109 / 8–1112 / 11–1417 / 16–1821 / 20–2224 / 22–2527 / 26–2928 / 27–3026 / 24–2720 / 19–2216 / 15–1711 / 10–13
Night °C2 / -1–62 / -1–65 / 3–910 / 8–1315 / 13–1719 / 17–2022 / 21–2424 / 22–2521 / 19–2215 / 13–189 / 7–135 / 2–8
Rain mm63 / 47–10177 / 55–131142 / 105–212143 / 116–239159 / 132–276216 / 164–390202 / 152–350189 / 145–302230 / 196–371188 / 118–235109 / 81–15357 / 48–91
DLI17 / 16–1822 / 21–2326 / 25–2832 / 30–3434 / 32–3631 / 28–3432 / 30–3633 / 31–3526 / 23–2921 / 19–2417 / 16–1915 / 15–17
RH %56 / 53–5956 / 54–5957 / 56–6060 / 58–6162 / 60–6466 / 64–6868 / 66–7066 / 64–6964 / 62–6660 / 58–6358 / 56–6256 / 54–60

Each figure is the median across the 114 grid cells holding the 144 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 1096:6382 (35.175, 139.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °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 114 distinct grid cells holding the 144 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1096:6382 (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 35.00_139.375, lapse-corrected +152 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 221 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.
NativeJapan· introduced: Great Britain, Spain, China South-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Taiwan, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, El Salvador
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.457, 139.503 · in the densest population, 85 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 152 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 111 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 238 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 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 of the 152 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatiorAspidistra elatior

Photographs: (c) Miha Jurić, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Nick T., some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Rocío Esmeralda Pose, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) harum.koh, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Joseph Hubbard, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Aspidistra elatior, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The exodermis: a variable apoplastic barrier
Eleonore Hose, David T. Clarkson, Ernst Steudle, Lukas Schreiber (2001) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Ornamental Plants as Invasive Aliens: Problems and Solutions in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Llewellyn C. Foxcroft, David M. Richardson, John R. Wilson (2007) · Environmental Management
Phylogenetics of Hyacinthaceae Based on Plastid DNA Sequences
Martin Pfosser, Franz Speta (1999) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
The ultrastructure of chloroplasts
E. Steinmann, Fritiof S. Sjöstrand (1955) · Experimental Cell Research
A comparison of habitat use, morphology, clinging performance and escape behaviour among two divergent green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) populations
Duncan J. Irschick, Elizabeth Carlisle, Justin Elstrott, Margarita Ramos (2005) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy
Gabriele Galasso, Fabio Conti, Lorenzo Peruzzi, Alessandro Alessandrini (2024) · Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology
Current State of Indoor Air Phytoremediation Using Potted Plants and Green Walls
Samaneh Bandehali, Taghi Miri, Helen Onyeaka, Prashant Kumar (2021) · Atmosphere
Overview of the Structure–Function Relationships of Mannose-Specific Lectins from Plants, Algae and Fungi
Annick Barre, Yves Bourne, Els J. M. Van Damme, Pierre Rougé (2019) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
An electron microscope study of the lamellar structure of chloroplasts
E. Steinmann (1952) · Experimental Cell Research
Lectins as Promising Therapeutics for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV and Other Potential Coinfections
Milena Mazalovska, J. Calvin Kouokam (2018) · BioMed Research International
Structure and chemical composition of endodermal and rhizodermal/hypodermal walls of several species
Jürgen Zeier, A. GOLL, Masaki Yokoyama, Ichirou Karahara (1999) · Plant Cell & Environment

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.

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 not askedcarried 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 answered
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 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.