Species
+

Daphne odora Thunb.

jinchōge, rui xiang, winter daphne, 서향

Climate known 9 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

Daphne odora, winter daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to China, later spread to Japan and Korea. It is an evergreen shrub, grown for its very fragrant, fleshy, pale-pink, tubular flowers, each with four spreading lobes, and for its glossy foliage. It rarely fruits, producing red berries after flowering.

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

About the genus · Daphne

Daphne, a figure in Greek mythology, was in various retellings a mortal woman or a nymph, daughter of a river god. The god Apollo fell in love with Daphne and chased her against her wishes, but before he caught her, Daphne prayed for escape, and was transformed into a laurel tree. Thenceforth Apollo developed a special reverence for laurel.

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

Family
Thymelaeaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan +1
Wild records
73 in range· 13 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1547mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 255 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–33DLI
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 1547 mm a year, wettest June at 255 mm, driest December at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.8 °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 Daphne chinensis Spreng.; Daphne indica Loisel.; Daphne japonica Thunb.; Daphne japonica var. rosacea Makino; Daphne jejudoensis M.Kim and 20 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 (1122 mm of 1547 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.5 °C against a yearly mean of 17.1 °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 1547 mm a year, wettest June at 255 mm, driest December at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1547 mm a year at the habitat, 1122 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 255 mm, driest December at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 974 mm to 2828 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 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 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 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -4.8 °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 -4.8 °C, the absolute minimum -14.8 °C, about 34 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.9 °C to 10.2 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.8 °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: 60 to 65% 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 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1547 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 69 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.4 °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°frost33.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–33RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 69 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 / 6–1711 / 8–1815 / 12–2021 / 17–2425 / 20–2728 / 22–2930 / 24–3330 / 24–3227 / 21–2922 / 17–2517 / 12–2211 / 8–17
Night °C2 / -3–104 / -0–117 / 3–1312 / 8–1717 / 12–2021 / 15–2323 / 17–2623 / 17–2519 / 14–2214 / 10–199 / 5–154 / -1–11
Rain mm58 / 17–11071 / 22–154108 / 37–216174 / 73–257210 / 106–340255 / 139–412201 / 154–315167 / 128–372115 / 87–38987 / 59–15663 / 30–11038 / 13–67
DLI16 / 12–2218 / 14–2322 / 16–2726 / 22–3129 / 25–3430 / 26–3333 / 29–3732 / 29–3427 / 22–3023 / 14–2618 / 13–2317 / 12–21
RH %62 / 58–6963 / 58–6964 / 57–6863 / 58–6763 / 59–6765 / 63–6864 / 61–6965 / 61–6863 / 61–6961 / 59–7061 / 58–7060 / 57–67

Each figure is the median across the 69 grid cells holding the 73 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 1270:5826 (26.475, 111.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.4 °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 69 distinct grid cells holding the 73 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1270:5826 (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 26.50_111.250, lapse-corrected +16 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 399 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Vietnam· introduced: New Zealand North
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.375, 119.823 · in the densest population, 38 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 73 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 13 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 151 km away. 130 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 73 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Daphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odoraDaphne odora

Photographs: Trevor Harding, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Emma Creasey, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Jiao Sun (孙娇), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Marco Mussita, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Odile V, 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 Daphne odora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Daphnetin Protects against Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Mice via Inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB Signaling Pathway
Jia Liu, Qianxue Chen, Zhihong Jian, Xiaoxing Xiong (2016) · BioMed Research International
Daphnetin ameliorates experimental colitis by modulating microbiota composition and T reg /T h 17 balance
Jianjian Ji, Xiaoyin Ge, Yugen Chen, Bo Zhu (2019) · The FASEB Journal
Three flavonoids from Daphne odora
Masahiko Taniguchi, Akiko Fujiwara, Kimiye Baba (1997) · Phytochemistry
Isolation and enzymatic formation of lignans ofDaphne genkwa andDaphne odora
Tomoya Okunishi, Toshiaki Umezawa, Mikio Shimada (2001) · Journal of Wood Science
Daphneodorins A–C, Anti-HIV Gnidimacrin Related Macrocyclic Daphnane Orthoesters from Daphne odora
Kouharu Otsuki, Wei Li, Yoshihisa Asada, Chin‐Ho Chen (2019) · Organic Letters
Chemical studies on the constituents of the thymelaeaceous plants. II Stereochemistry of daphnodorin A and daphnodorin B.
Kimiye Baba, Kazuo Takeuchi, Mitsunobu Doi, Masatoshi Inoue (1986) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Three biflavonoids from Daphne odora
Masahiko Taniguchi, Kimiye Baba (1996) · Phytochemistry
Chemical studies on the constituents of the thymelaeaceous plants. I. Structures of two new flavans from Daphne odora Thunb.
Kimiye Baba, Kazuo Takeuchi, Fumiyo Hamasaki, MITSUGI KOZAWA (1986) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Daphnetin protects hippocampal neurons from oxygen‐glucose deprivation–induced injury
Jin Zhi, Bin Duan, Jiwen Pei, Songdi Wu (2018) · Journal of Cellular Biochemistry
Isolation, Structural Elucidation, and Anti-HIV Activity of Daphnane Diterpenoids from Daphne odora
Kouharu Otsuki, Wei Li, Kasumi Miura, Yoshihisa Asada (2020) · Journal of Natural Products

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 Daphne 2 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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 12 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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.