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Chamaecyparis pisifera; photograph (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-15

Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl.

Sawara cypress; Japanese false cypress; Sawara false cypress

Cupressaceae · Japan

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Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) olmagon, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) olmagon, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) 47 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-7.5°C
Record low -12.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,709mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress or Sawara Japanese: サワラ, romanized: Sawara) is a species of conifer in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. It is native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecyparis pisifera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,169 mm of 1,662 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.7 °C against a yearly mean of 12.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,662 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,169 mm of it May to October. Wettest month July at 235 mm, driest month December at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,327 mm to 2,346 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,709 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,662 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 34 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -7.5 °C, the absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 2,843 frost nights in 44 years, 64.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -12.9 °C to 0.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 66% 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 +189 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

Habitat climate of Chamaecyparis pisifera through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -4.2 °C; 1,662 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost29.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-12.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–34RH 57–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 61 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -2–85 / -1–98 / 3–1215 / 10–1819 / 16–2223 / 19–2526 / 22–2927 / 24–3024 / 20–2618 / 14–2112 / 8–157 / 1–11
Night °C-4 / -13–1-4 / -12–10 / -7–46 / 0–911 / 5–1415 / 10–1819 / 14–2221 / 15–2317 / 11–2010 / 4–144 / -2–8-1 / -9–3
Rain mm55 / 38–9566 / 44–106110 / 81–188122 / 98–190154 / 117–219203 / 145–286235 / 145–338181 / 140–275231 / 180–322165 / 94–21289 / 57–13351 / 33–81
DLI18 / 17–2023 / 22–2628 / 26–3133 / 31–3634 / 32–3731 / 28–3430 / 28–3332 / 29–3425 / 23–2722 / 19–2417 / 16–1916 / 15–18
RH %57 / 53–6257 / 53–6057 / 55–6058 / 56–6060 / 58–6364 / 62–6666 / 64–6965 / 62–6864 / 62–6761 / 59–6359 / 57–6258 / 54–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 61 grid cells holding the 64 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1095:6170 (35.225, 128.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 61 distinct grid cells holding 64 of the 64 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1095:6170 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_128.750, lapse-corrected +189 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 259 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeJapan · introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Korea, New York · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker35.474, 139.403 · in the densest population, 283 records (73% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 386 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 64 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 355 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 943 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 322 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7326313 (Cupressus pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Silba, 2005): Kew's file holds it as Cupressus pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) F.Muell. (synonym under Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl.); 4 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 8051937 (Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Siebold & Zucc.): Kew's file holds it as Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl. (accepted); 340 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 386 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 1did not loadChamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 2did not loadChamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 3did not loadChamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 4did not loadChamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 5did not loadChamaecyparis pisifera, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) olmagon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Salvia nipponica Salvia nipponica Yellow Wood Sage Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Artemisia princeps Artemisia princeps Japanese mugwort Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎Ilex serrata Ilex serrata Japanese winterberry Photo: CC BY, Timur KalininskyOphiopogon planiscapus Ophiopogon planiscapus Black mondo Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowGamblea innovans Gamblea innovans Araliaceae Photo: CC BY, plant 0302Deutzia crenata Deutzia crenata Crenate pride-of-Rochester Photo: CC BY, Nico Carl

Other Chamaecyparis 4 in the reference

Chamaecyparis formosensis Chamaecyparis formosensis Taiwan cypress Photo: CC0, author not statedChamaecyparis lawsoniana Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Lawson's cypress Photo: CC BY, Owen and Carol Fawcett.Chamaecyparis obtusa Chamaecyparis obtusa Hinoki false cypress Photo: CC BY, plant 0302Chamaecyparis thyoides Chamaecyparis thyoides Atlantic white cedar Photo: CC BY, geosesarma

Names & registers

Also known as Chamaecyparis filifera; Chamaecyparis leptoclada; Chamaecyparis obtusa f. plumosa; Chamaecyparis obtusa var. plumosa; Chamaecyparis pisifera f. aurea and 55 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cupressaceae
Described by
(Siebold & Zucc.) Endl.
Native to
Japan
Wild records
386 in range · 355 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records of GBIF's key 7326313, Cupressus pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Silba, 2005 (Kew's file holds it as Cupressus pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) F.Muell. (synonym under Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 340 records of GBIF's key 8051937, Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Siebold & Zucc. (Kew's file holds it as Chamaecyparis pisifera (Siebold & Zucc.) Endl. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 346 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (298 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 20 at a herbarium, 28 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_128.750, lapse-corrected +189 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.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 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 181 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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