Species
+

Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb.

Asian Bittersweet, Asian bittersweet, Asiatic Bittersweet, Asiatic bittersweet

Climate known 169 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

Celastrus orbiculatus is a woody vine of the family Celastraceae. It is commonly called Oriental bittersweet, as well as Chinese bittersweet, Asian bittersweet, round-leaved bittersweet, and Asiatic bittersweet.

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

About the genus · Celastrus

Celastrus, commonly known as staff vine, staff tree or bittersweet, is a genus of the family Celastraceae; it contains over 40 species of shrubs and vines, which have a wide distribution in East Asia, Australasia, Africa, and the Americas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Celastrus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Celastraceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Amur, Kuril Is., Primorye +8
Wild records
263 in range· 161 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1557mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 275 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–36DLI
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 1557 mm a year, wettest July at 275 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.3 °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 Catha articulata (Thunb.) G.Don; Celastrus articulatus Koehne; Celastrus articulatus Thunb.; Celastrus articulatus var. humilis Matsum.; Celastrus articulatus var. orbiculata (Thunb.) Wang and 15 more.

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 (1160 mm of 1557 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.3 °C against a yearly mean of 11.9 °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 1557 mm a year, wettest July at 275 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1557 mm a year at the habitat, 1160 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 275 mm, driest December at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 735 mm to 2468 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 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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 -8.3 °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 -8.3 °C, the absolute minimum -13.5 °C, about 124 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.1 °C to 2.7 °C), warmest day 26.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.3 °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 2 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -6 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1557 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 247 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -13.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-13.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–36RH 57–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 247 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 °C2 / -2–84 / -1–99 / 4–1315 / 10–1920 / 15–2423 / 19–2726 / 22–2927 / 24–2923 / 20–2618 / 14–2111 / 7–165 / 0–11
Night °C-6 / -13–3-5 / -10–3-1 / -5–65 / 1–1111 / 7–1516 / 12–1920 / 16–2320 / 16–2416 / 12–219 / 5–163 / -2–10-3 / -9–5
Rain mm46 / 11–10254 / 13–11989 / 24–183111 / 43–192136 / 68–240185 / 92–307275 / 151–417258 / 141–352195 / 80–33398 / 40–22269 / 28–14341 / 15–97
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 19–2428 / 25–3034 / 30–3636 / 32–3834 / 28–3731 / 27–3431 / 28–3326 / 23–2823 / 19–2517 / 14–1915 / 13–17
RH %57 / 52–6357 / 53–6257 / 54–6159 / 53–6261 / 56–6465 / 59–6868 / 63–7167 / 62–6963 / 60–6759 / 56–6458 / 54–6357 / 53–62

Each figure is the median across the 247 grid cells holding the 254 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 1089:6382 (35.525, 139.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 247 distinct grid cells holding the 254 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1089:6382 (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 35.50_139.375, lapse-corrected +545 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 778 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.
NativeAmur, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea· introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Baltic States, Ukraine, Vietnam, New Zealand North, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“liana” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.688, 138.844 · in the densest population, 116 records (44% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 263 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 161 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 106 km away. 1672 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 263 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Celastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatusCelastrus orbiculatus

Photographs: (c) Sam Leininger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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

Natural Plants Compounds as Modulators of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition
Lorena Ávila-Carrasco, Pedro Majano, José Antonio Sánchez-Tomero, Rafael Selgas (2019) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Antiinflammatory Constituents of Celastrus orbiculatus Inhibit the NF-κB Activation and NO Production
Hui Jin, Bang Yeon Hwang, Hang Sub Kim, Jeong Hyun Lee (2002) · Journal of Natural Products
Influence of Land Use and Site Characteristics on Invasive Plant Abundance in the Quinebaug Highlands of Southern New England
Marjorie R. Lundgren, Christine J. Small, Glenn D. Dreyer (2004) · Northeastern Naturalist
Multivariate forecasts of potential distributions of invasive plant species
Inés Ibáñez, John A. Silander, Adam M. Wilson, Nancy LaFleur (2009) · Ecological Applications
Antioxidant Benzoylated Flavan-3-ol Glycoside from Celastrus orbiculatus
Bang Yeon Hwang, Hang Sub Kim, Jeong Hyeong Lee, Young‐Soo Hong (2000) · Journal of Natural Products
Wild food plants and wild edible fungi in two valleys of the Qinling Mountains (Shaanxi, central China)
Yongxiang Kang, Łukasz Łuczaj, Jin Kang, Shijiao Zhang (2013) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
The role of land-use history in major invasions by woody plant species in the northeastern North American landscape
Eric S. Mosher, John A. Silander, Andrew M. Latimer (2009) · Biological Invasions
Identifying hotspots for plant invasions and forecasting focal points of further spread
Inés Ibáñez, John A. Silander, Jenica M. Allen, Sarah A. Treanor (2009) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Relative allelopathic potential of invasive plant species in a young disturbed woodland1
Nikki L. Pisula, Scott J. Meiners (2010) · The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society

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 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 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 107 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.