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Hosta venusta; photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SADavid J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hosta venusta F.Maek.

Mount Halla Hosta; Halla hosta; Handsome Plantain Lily

Asparagaceae · Japan, Korea · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-0.7°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,531mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–36DLI
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 April to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 7 records in 7 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Hosta venusta, the handsome plantain lily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Jeju Island of South Korea, with a few populations in central Japan. It may have arisen from Hosta minor populations isolated on Jeju since the last ice age. One of the smallest hostas, it cold hardy to USDA zone 3, shade tolerant, and is well suited for rock gardens, borders and as a ground cover.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hosta venusta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hosta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Hosta in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,880 mm of 2,531 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.0 °C against a yearly mean of 12.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,531 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,880 mm of it April to September. Wettest month August at 446 mm, driest month December at 73 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,777 mm to 2,891 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,531 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,531 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: 14 to 36 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -2.4 °C to 3.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -0.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 70% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Hosta in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 7 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hosta venusta through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -0.7 °C; 2,531 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 14–36RH 54–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 7 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / 1–84 / 3–98 / 6–1212 / 11–1617 / 15–2120 / 19–2424 / 22–2724 / 23–2921 / 19–2516 / 14–2111 / 9–155 / 4–10
Night °C-1 / -2–40 / -1–43 / 2–67 / 6–1112 / 10–1516 / 15–1920 / 19–2421 / 19–2518 / 16–2112 / 11–167 / 5–112 / 0–6
Rain mm93 / 60–106101 / 70–115158 / 114–180183 / 141–209203 / 159–230334 / 246–378407 / 287–457446 / 299–513307 / 205–362120 / 81–139106 / 71–12073 / 46–83
DLI14 / 11–1519 / 17–2127 / 25–2834 / 32–3436 / 35–3631 / 31–3330 / 29–3331 / 30–3227 / 25–2824 / 22–2617 / 15–1914 / 11–15
RH %64 / 55–6760 / 55–6357 / 53–5954 / 50–6155 / 51–6462 / 58–6870 / 64–7267 / 65–7063 / 60–6558 / 55–6259 / 54–6261 / 55–64

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 32% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 7 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 1133:6129 (33.325, 126.475). 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 7 distinct grid cells holding 7 of the 7 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1133:6129 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 32% land and none of the 3 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_126.250, lapse-corrected +816 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 870 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, Korea · 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 marker33.346, 126.537 · in the densest population, 9 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 9 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 7 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 8 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate. 2 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 9 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

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

Maackia floribunda Maackia floribunda Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, harum.koh from Kobe city, JapanAdonis multiflora Adonis multiflora Acute-tip adonis Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Daphniphyllum macropodum Daphniphyllum macropodum Macropodous daphniphyllum Photo: CC BY, Daniel J. LaytonHuperzia serrata Huperzia serrata Toothed clubmoss Photo: CC BY, Young Jun LeeGeranium shikokianum Geranium shikokianum Shikoku marbled crane's-bill Photo: CC BY-SA, Qwert1234 Ligustrum salicinum Willow-leaf privet

Other Hosta 19 in the reference

Hosta albofarinosa White Powder Hosta Hosta capitata Hosta capitata Ilwol hosta Photo: CC BY-SA, Marco SchmidtHosta clausa Hosta clausa Closed-flower hosta Photo: CC BY, Shu Suehiro Hosta hypoleuca White-backed Hosta Hosta jonesii Dadohae hosta Hosta kikutii Asparagaceae Hosta kiyosumiensis Hosta kiyosumiensis Kiyosumi Mountain Hosta Photo: CC0, DaderotHosta lancifolia Hosta lancifolia Narrow-leaf plantain-lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizHosta longipes Hosta longipes Iwa Giboshi Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968 Hosta longissima Narrow-leaf hosta Hosta minor Hosta minor Minor hosta Photo: CC BY-SA, SalicynaHosta plantaginea Hosta plantaginea Fragrant plantain lily Photo: CC BY, Sara Patton all 20 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Funkia subcordata var. taquetii; Hosta minor var. venusta; Hosta taquetii; Hosta venusta var. decurrens. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
F.Maek.
Native to
Japan, Korea
Wild records
9 in range · 8 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_126.250, lapse-corrected +816 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (32% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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