Species
+

Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J.Presl

Camphor tree, Camphortree, Japanese camphor, Japanese camphor

Climate known 22 photographs
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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

Camphora officinarum is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and India. It is known by various names, most notably the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel.

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

About the genus · Cinnamomum

Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark and are best known as the source of the spice cinnamon. The genus contains about 227 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania/Australasia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Lauraceae
Described by
(L.) J.Presl
Native to
Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto +1
Wild records
133 in range· 10 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2332mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 354 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–36DLI
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 2332 mm a year, wettest August at 354 mm, driest December at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.7 °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 Camphora camelliifolia Lukman.; Camphora camphora (L.) H.Karst.; Camphora decaisnei Lukman.; Camphora decandollei Lukman.; Camphora hahnemannii Lukman. and 45 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 (1780 mm of 2332 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.7 °C against a yearly mean of 22.1 °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 2332 mm a year, wettest August at 354 mm, driest December at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2332 mm a year at the habitat, 1780 mm of it April to September. Wettest month August at 354 mm, driest December at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1527 mm to 3461 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: 17 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 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 14, 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 9.7 °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 9.7 °C, the absolute minimum 4.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.4 °C to 15.3 °C), warmest day 29.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.7 °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: 62 to 66% 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 17 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2332 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 98 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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°frost30.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 17–36RH 62–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 98 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 °C17 / 8–2118 / 9–2221 / 12–2524 / 17–2726 / 21–2928 / 24–3029 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 25–2925 / 20–2822 / 16–2619 / 11–22
Night °C12 / 0–1513 / 1–1615 / 4–1819 / 9–2121 / 14–2323 / 18–2524 / 22–2624 / 22–2623 / 19–2521 / 14–2318 / 8–2014 / 3–17
Rain mm55 / 27–14195 / 45–210127 / 54–207154 / 90–215265 / 150–344353 / 187–465331 / 168–499354 / 158–545323 / 195–522138 / 37–37484 / 24–23053 / 24–153
DLI18 / 15–2422 / 18–2727 / 24–3231 / 28–3532 / 30–3533 / 29–3436 / 31–3833 / 31–3530 / 24–3225 / 19–3020 / 16–2517 / 14–22
RH %63 / 54–6763 / 55–6864 / 57–6864 / 59–6764 / 62–6865 / 63–6865 / 64–6866 / 64–6865 / 63–6964 / 60–6763 / 58–6762 / 56–66

Each figure is the median across the 98 grid cells holding the 132 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 1299:6033 (25.025, 121.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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 98 distinct grid cells holding the 132 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:6033 (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 25.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +203 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 304 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, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan· introduced: Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, New Zealand North, Fiji, Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, El Salvador, Honduras, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.171, 120.784 · in the densest population, 95 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 133 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 10 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 99 km away. 604 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 133 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphoraCinnamomum camphora

Photographs: Dave Richardson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Richard Fuller, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Nonbinary-Naturalist, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Biosynthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles by novel sundriedCinnamomum camphoraleaf
Jiale Huang, Qingbiao Li, Daohua Sun, Yinghua Lu (2007) · Nanotechnology
Green synthesis of palladium nanoparticles using broth of Cinnamomum camphora leaf
Xin Yang, Qingbiao Li, Huixuan Wang, Jiale Huang (2009) · Journal of Nanoparticle Research
Removal of copper(II) ions by a biosorbent—Cinnamomum camphora leaves powder
Hao Chen, Guoliang Dai, Jie Zhao, Aiguo Zhong (2009) · Journal of Hazardous Materials
In vitro anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of Cinnamomum camphora extracts
Hye Ja Lee, Eun-A Hyun, Weon‐Jong Yoon, Byung Hun Kim (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Synthesis of customized petroleum-replica fuel molecules by targeted modification of free fatty acid pools in Escherichia coli
Thomas P. Howard, Sabine Middelhaufe, Karen Moore, Christoph Edner (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Cinnamomum camphora and Their Insecticidal Activity against the Stored Product Pests
Shanshan Guo, Zhu‐Feng Geng, Wenjuan Zhang, Junyu Liang (2016) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Transcriptome analysis and identification of genes related to terpenoid biosynthesis in Cinnamomum camphora
Caihui Chen, Yongjie Zheng, Yongda Zhong, Yangfang Wu (2018) · BMC Genomics
Nativeness, Invasiveness, and Nation in Australian Plants
Lesley Head, Pat Muir (2004) · Geographical Review

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 Cinnamomum 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 search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 22 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.