Species
+

Camellia sasanqua Thunb.

Sasanqua Camellia, sa-zan-ka, sasanqua camellia, 애기동백, 애기동백나무

Climate known 52 photographs Temperate garden plant
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

Camellia sasanqua, with common name Sasanqua camellia or Christmas camellia, is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the genus Camellia, section Oleifera of the family Theaceae. It is native to southern Japan and the Ryukyu Islands. It has a long cultivation history in East Asia, used both as an ornamental plant and for seed oil extraction and leaf tea.

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

About the genus · Camellia

Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species; almost all are found in southern China and Indochina. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Theaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Japan, Nansei-shoto
Wild records
491 in range· 440 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2410mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 354 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
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Camellia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2410 mm a year, wettest June at 354 mm, driest December at 73 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.7 °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 Camellia miyagii (Koidz.) Makino & Nemoto; Camellia sasanqua var. angustifolia Miq.; Camellia sasanqua var. fujikoana Makino; Camellia sasanqua var. lanceolata Miq.; Camellia sasanqua var. latifolia Miq. and 14 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Camellia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March 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 (1839 mm of 2410 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.6 °C against a yearly mean of 16.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September 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 2410 mm a year, wettest June at 354 mm, driest December at 73 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2410 mm a year at the habitat, 1839 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 354 mm, driest December at 73 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1480 mm to 3322 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 41).

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 0.7 °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 0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -4.1 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.9 °C to 15.7 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.7 °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: 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 28 °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. 2410 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 307 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °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°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 16–34RH 57–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 307 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 °C9 / 7–1810 / 8–1813 / 11–1918 / 16–2122 / 20–2425 / 23–2628 / 26–2928 / 27–3026 / 24–2721 / 20–2516 / 15–2311 / 9–19
Night °C4 / -1–164 / -0–167 / 3–1711 / 8–2016 / 13–2219 / 17–2523 / 21–2724 / 22–2721 / 19–2616 / 13–2411 / 7–216 / 1–18
Rain mm83 / 50–205113 / 58–188183 / 110–263210 / 120–288247 / 136–323354 / 167–574294 / 160–436269 / 146–350282 / 196–400179 / 108–261123 / 82–22473 / 49–173
DLI17 / 14–1821 / 19–2326 / 25–2832 / 30–3434 / 32–3631 / 28–3533 / 30–4134 / 31–3827 / 24–3324 / 19–2618 / 16–2016 / 14–18
RH %57 / 54–6158 / 54–6158 / 56–6260 / 58–6362 / 60–6667 / 64–7168 / 66–7267 / 64–7064 / 62–6760 / 58–6359 / 56–6157 / 54–61

Each figure is the median across the 307 grid cells holding the 484 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 1133:6194 (33.325, 129.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °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 307 distinct grid cells holding the 484 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1133:6194 (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 33.50_130.000, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 152 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, Nansei-shoto· introduced: Korea, Assam, Laos, Vietnam, Arkansas
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.136, 130.642 · in the densest population, 246 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 491 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 440 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 161 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 2° block of the 491 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Camellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanquaCamellia sasanqua

Photographs: (c) Lauren McLaurin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Kim, Hyun-tae, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 Camellia sasanqua, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Sterols, methylsterols, and triterpene alcohols in threeTheaceae and some other vegetable oils
Toshihiro Itoh, Toshitake Tamura, Tarô Matsumoto (1974) · Lipids
CAMELLIA + ‘DAISY EAGLESON,’ A GRAFT CHIMERA OF CAMELLIA SASANQUA AND C. JAPONICA
R. N. Stewart, F. Meyer, Haig Dermen (1972) · American Journal of Botany
Triacylglyceride, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Features of Virgin Camellia oleifera, C. reticulata and C. sasanqua Oils
Xesús Feás, Letı́cia M. Estevinho, C. Salinero, Pilar Vela (2013) · Molecules
Pharmacology and therapeutic uses of theanine
Gregory Eschenauer, Burgunda V. Sweet (2005) · American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
Storage in an Organic Solvent as a Means for Preserving Viability of Pollen Grains
Yozo Iwanami, Norio Nakamura (1972) · Stain Technology
Medicinal Flowers. XXXI. Acylated Oleanane-Type Triterpene Saponins, Sasanquasaponins I-V, with Antiallergic Activity from the Flower Buds of Camellia sasanqua
Hisashi Matsuda, Seikou Nakamura, Katsuyoshi Fujimoto, Ryo Moriuchi (2010) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Isolation of Hyperoside and Isoquercitrin from Camellia sasanqua as Antioxidant Agents
Agus Sukito, Sanro Tachibana (2014) · Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences
Camelliols A−C, Three Novel Incompletely Cyclized Triterpene Alcohols from Sasanqua Oil (Camellia sasanqua)
Toshihiro Akihisa, Koichi Arai, Yumiko Kimura, Kazuo Koike (1998) · Journal of Natural Products
Absorption of Ozone and Seven Organic Pollutants by Populus nigra and Camellia sasanqua
Kenji Omasa, Kazuo Tobe, Masaaki Hosomi, Mizuho Kobayashi (2000) · Environmental Science & Technology

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 Camellia 3 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 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 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.