Berberis thunbergii DC.
Crimson pygmy, Japanese Barberry, Japanese Berberis, Japanese barberry
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
Berberis thunbergii, the Japanese barberry, Thunberg's barberry, or red barberry, is a species of flowering plant in the barberry family Berberidaceae, native to Japan and eastern Asia, though widely naturalized in China and North America, where it has become a problematic invasive in many places, leading to declines in species diversity, increased tick habitat, and soil changes. Growing to 1 m tall by 2.5 m broad, it is a small deciduous shrub with green leaves turning red in the autumn, brilliant red fruits in autumn and pale yellow flowers in spring.
Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis thunbergii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Berberis
Berberis, commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from 1–5 m tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. Species diversity is greatest in South America and Asia, but native species also appear in Europe, Africa, and North America.
Text from Wikipedia, “Berberis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea (Chenault) Rehder; Berberis thunbergii f. erecta Rehder; Berberis thunbergii f. grandiflora E.Wolf; Berberis thunbergii f. grandiflora E.Wolf ex V.V.Byalt, L.V.Orlova & Potokin; Berberis thunbergii f. microcarpa E.Wolf and 16 more.
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 (1397 mm of 1820 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.7 °C against a yearly mean of 13.0 °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 1820 mm a year, wettest September at 271 mm, driest December at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1820 mm a year at the habitat, 1397 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 271 mm, driest December at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1340 mm to 2810 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 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 -5.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.6 °C, the absolute minimum -10.8 °C, about 91 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.0 °C to 1.4 °C), warmest day 26.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.6 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 4 / -1–8 | 5 / 0–9 | 9 / 4–12 | 15 / 11–17 | 19 / 16–22 | 22 / 19–25 | 26 / 22–28 | 27 / 24–29 | 24 / 20–26 | 18 / 14–21 | 13 / 8–16 | 7 / 2–11 |
| Night °C | -4 / -10–1 | -3 / -9–2 | 1 / -5–5 | 6 / 1–10 | 11 / 6–14 | 16 / 11–18 | 20 / 15–22 | 21 / 16–23 | 18 / 12–20 | 11 / 6–15 | 5 / -0–9 | 0 / -6–4 |
| Rain mm | 62 / 43–93 | 69 / 48–122 | 136 / 89–207 | 141 / 104–203 | 162 / 123–250 | 211 / 150–321 | 220 / 137–397 | 211 / 138–297 | 271 / 187–336 | 181 / 156–238 | 102 / 73–147 | 54 / 39–79 |
| DLI | 18 / 16–20 | 23 / 20–24 | 27 / 25–29 | 32 / 30–34 | 34 / 31–36 | 30 / 27–33 | 31 / 28–33 | 32 / 29–34 | 25 / 22–27 | 20 / 19–23 | 17 / 16–19 | 16 / 14–17 |
| RH % | 57 / 54–63 | 57 / 54–63 | 58 / 56–62 | 59 / 58–61 | 62 / 60–64 | 66 / 64–68 | 68 / 65–70 | 67 / 64–69 | 66 / 64–69 | 62 / 60–65 | 60 / 58–63 | 58 / 55–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 39 grid cells holding the 39 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 1087:6384 (35.625, 139.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °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 39 distinct grid cells holding the 39 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1087:6384 (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 35.50_139.375, lapse-corrected +137 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 370 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Don Bright, 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 Berberis thunbergii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Ophiopogon planiscapus Black mondo grass
Wisteria floribunda Common Wisteria, Japanese Wisteria
Deutzia crenata Crenate pride-of-Rochester
Ilex crenata Box-leaf Holly
Viburnum plicatum Japanese Snowball
Cornus kousa Chinese DogwoodOther Berberis 3 in the reference
Berberis darwinii Darwin's Barberry
Berberis julianae Berberis lempergiana
Berberis vulgaris Barberry 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 100 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.