13 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Cercidiphyllum magnificum, known as the large-leaf katsura or magnificent katsura tree, is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to Honshu, Japan. It is sometimes called caramel tree for the light, sweet smell it emits during leaf fall, sometimes compared to cotton candy (candyfloss) or "freshly baked biscuits and bread". It is grown as an ornamental tree for its heart shaped leaves that in autumn turn a mixture of bright yellow, pink and orange-red.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cercidiphyllum magnificum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Cercidiphyllum
Cercidiphyllum is a genus containing two species of plants, both commonly called katsura. They are the sole members of the monotypic family Cercidiphyllaceae. The genus is native to Japan and China and unrelated to Cercis (redbuds).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cercidiphyllum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,550 mm of 2,073 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 11.9 °C against a yearly mean of 6.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.
Rain
2,073 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,550 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest months (2 at 286 mm), driest month December at 73 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,565 mm to 2,789 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,087 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,073 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -16.4 °C, the absolute minimum -21.8 °C, 7,649 frost nights in 44 years, 173.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -13.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -16.4 °C to -9.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +340 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from -4 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug; mean nightly low from -13 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 2,073 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest months (2 at 286 mm). The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 39 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -21.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -4 / -7–0 | -3 / -6–1 | 1 / -2–5 | 9 / 5–12 | 14 / 11–18 | 18 / 14–21 | 21 / 18–25 | 22 / 19–26 | 19 / 15–22 | 12 / 9–16 | 6 / 3–9 | 0 / -4–3 |
| Night °C | -13 / -16–-9 | -12 / -15–-8 | -8 / -11–-4 | -2 / -5–2 | 4 / 1–8 | 10 / 6–13 | 14 / 10–17 | 15 / 11–18 | 11 / 8–14 | 4 / 1–8 | -3 / -6–1 | -10 / -12–-6 |
| Rain mm | 84 / 49–251 | 101 / 61–197 | 155 / 97–200 | 146 / 101–181 | 179 / 138–220 | 232 / 193–303 | 286 / 224–387 | 229 / 160–287 | 286 / 240–352 | 183 / 147–227 | 119 / 76–232 | 73 / 38–235 |
| DLI | 18 / 15–19 | 23 / 21–25 | 29 / 27–31 | 34 / 33–37 | 35 / 33–37 | 31 / 29–34 | 31 / 29–33 | 32 / 31–33 | 25 / 23–26 | 21 / 20–23 | 17 / 15–19 | 16 / 13–17 |
| RH % | 63 / 57–68 | 62 / 56–67 | 60 / 56–63 | 58 / 56–60 | 60 / 58–62 | 64 / 62–66 | 67 / 64–69 | 66 / 64–69 | 66 / 63–69 | 62 / 59–65 | 61 / 56–64 | 62 / 55–66 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Aletris foliata Nartheciaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Luke
Rhododendron brachycarpum Short-fruit rosebay Photo: CC BY, Timur Kalininsky
Pteridophyllum racemosum Fern Poppy Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎
Gentiana makinoi Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Marco MussitaOther Cercidiphyllum 1 in the reference
Names & registers
Also known as Cercidiphyllum japonicum var. magnificum. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_138.125, lapse-corrected +340 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.