Species
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Hosta sieboldiana (Hook.) Engl.

Siebold's Plantain Lily, Siebold’s hosta, tō-gibōshi

Climate known 70 photographs Temperate garden plant
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

Hosta sieboldiana, Siebold's plantain lily, is a species of hosta native to Japan. A putative variety, Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, as has a putative variety of its synonym; Hosta fortunei var. aureomarginata, the gold-edged plantain lily. The cultivars 'Blue Angel', 'Blue Mammoth', and 'Olive Bailey Langdon' have also gained the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

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

About the genus · Hosta

Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, and is native to northeast Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(Hook.) Engl.
Native to
Japan
Wild records
1008 in range· 858 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1876mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 251 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hosta, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1876 mm a year, wettest September at 251 mm, driest December at 75 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.0 °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 Funkia ovata var. albomarginata Regel; Funkia sieboldiana Hook.; Funkia sieboldii Lindl.; Hosta caerulea f. albomarginata (Regel) Voss; Niobe sieboldiana (Hook.) Nash and 1 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hosta, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October 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 (1379 mm of 1876 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.9 °C against a yearly mean of 11.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.

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 1876 mm a year, wettest September at 251 mm, driest December at 75 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1876 mm a year at the habitat, 1379 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month September at 251 mm, driest December at 75 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1414 mm to 3072 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 -10.0 °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 -10.0 °C, the absolute minimum -15.3 °C, about 116 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -11.7 °C to 0.8 °C), warmest day 26.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.0 °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: 59 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 3 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1876 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 749 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °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°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–34RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 749 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 °C3 / -4–84 / -3–88 / 1–1214 / 8–1719 / 14–2122 / 18–2425 / 21–2827 / 22–2923 / 19–2517 / 13–2011 / 6–156 / -0–10
Night °C-5 / -12–1-5 / -11–1-1 / -7–45 / -1–910 / 5–1415 / 10–1819 / 14–2220 / 15–2316 / 12–2010 / 5–143 / -2–9-2 / -8–3
Rain mm83 / 43–28989 / 48–203134 / 84–214134 / 95–198158 / 117–236202 / 146–313243 / 162–382211 / 147–303251 / 191–346180 / 126–242116 / 70–26975 / 40–288
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 19–2427 / 25–3033 / 31–3534 / 32–3631 / 28–3531 / 28–3331 / 29–3424 / 22–2621 / 19–2316 / 14–1815 / 11–17
RH %60 / 55–6860 / 55–6660 / 57–6359 / 57–6161 / 59–6365 / 62–6868 / 65–7066 / 63–6966 / 63–6962 / 60–6561 / 58–6560 / 56–66

Each figure is the median across the 749 grid cells holding the 980 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 1024:6420 (38.775, 141.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °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 749 distinct grid cells holding the 980 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1024:6420 (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 39.00_141.250, lapse-corrected -215 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 26 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· introduced: South European Russia, Korea
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.021, 139.003 · in the densest population, 620 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1008 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 858 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 406 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 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 of the 1008 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldianaHosta sieboldiana

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (6); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Evolution of pollinator generalization in bumblebee‐pollinated plants
Kazuo Suzuki, Ikumi Dohzono, K. Hiei (2007) · Plant Species Biology
The lack of control of water loss in micropropagated plants is not related to poor cuticle development
Jorge M. Santamaría, Gerhard Kerstiens (1994) · Physiologia Plantarum
In Vitro Propagation of Hosta sieboldiana1
Martin M. Meyer (1980) · HortScience
First Report of Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum spaethianum on Allium fistulosum in Brazil
Kamila Santana, C. B. Garcia, Kedma da Silva Matos, Rogério Eiji Hanada (2015) · Plant Disease
First Report of Leaf Spot Caused by Colletotrichum spaethianum on Peucedanum praeruptorum in China
Min Guo, Yuemin Pan, Yabin Dai, Zhimou Gao (2013) · Plant Disease
Comparison of the Essential Oils from Wild type and Cultivar type ofHosta sieboldiana
Mitsuo Miyazawa, Yuya Utsumi, Jyunichi Kawata (2008) · Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants
Plant regeneration from suspension cultures of Hosta sieboldiana
Hiroyuki Saito, Masaru Nakano (2002) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
BA-Induced Offset Formation in Hosta
Gary J. Keever (1994) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
New Steroidal Saponin fromHosta sieboldiana
Hiroshi Yada, Toshiyuki Kimura, Masahiro Suzuki, Mayumi Ohnishi‐Kameyama (2010) · Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Selecting the Optimum Slow-release Fertilizer Rate for Five Cultivars of Tissue-cultured Hosta
Wendy Britton, E. Jay Holcomb, David Beattie (1998) · HortTechnology
In vitro propagation of Hosta sieboldiana using excised ovaries from immature florets
Rodney A. Hill, Gerald A. Tuskan, A. A. Boe (1989) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)

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 Hosta 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 80 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.