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Illicium anisatum; photograph (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-07

Illicium anisatum L.

Aniseed tree; Japanese star-anise; Sacred anisetree

Schisandraceae · Japan, Korea +2

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Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY)Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY)Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY)Illicium anisatum, photograph (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY) 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.3°C
Record low -8.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,365mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–34DLI
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 March 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.

Summary

Illicium anisatum, with common names Japanese star anise, aniseed tree, and sacred anise tree, known in Japanese as shikimi (樒; シキミ), is an evergreen shrub or small tree closely related to the Chinese star anise (Illicium verum). Since it is highly toxic, the fruit is not edible; instead, the dried and powdered leaves are burned as incense in Japan. Its branches and evergreen leaves are considered highly sacred by Japanese Buddhists due to insects' aversion to them and their ability to remain fresh after pruning.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Illicium anisatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Illicium

Illicium is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae, or alternately as the sole genus of the Illiciaceae. It has a disjunct distribution, with most species native to subtropical and tropical areas of East and Southeast Asia and several in parts of North America, including the southeastern United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. General common names include star anise and anisetree. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,766 mm of 2,312 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.0 °C against a yearly mean of 15.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March.

Rain

2,312 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,766 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 331 mm, driest month December at 72 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,562 mm to 4,105 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,365 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,312 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: 15 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.3 °C, the absolute minimum -8.7 °C, 2,850 frost nights in 44 years, 64.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.4 °C to 7.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.3 °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: 59 to 68% 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 -102 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 Illicium anisatum through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 0.9 °C; 2,312 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-8.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 15–34RH 59–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 172 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 °C7 / 4–138 / 5–1411 / 9–1716 / 14–1920 / 18–2323 / 21–2527 / 23–2928 / 23–3025 / 21–2720 / 17–2315 / 12–1810 / 6–14
Night °C1 / -4–71 / -4–84 / 0–109 / 5–1413 / 10–1717 / 14–2121 / 17–2422 / 17–2519 / 15–2213 / 10–188 / 4–143 / -2–9
Rain mm82 / 51–175108 / 64–201172 / 111–235188 / 117–268231 / 146–388331 / 190–586326 / 191–500245 / 143–485273 / 193–543169 / 106–406115 / 76–25772 / 47–185
DLI16 / 14–1921 / 18–2427 / 24–2932 / 29–3434 / 30–3631 / 28–3333 / 29–3633 / 30–3527 / 24–2923 / 20–2518 / 16–2015 / 14–18
RH %59 / 55–6759 / 55–6759 / 57–6559 / 58–6562 / 60–6766 / 63–6968 / 65–7167 / 64–7065 / 62–6961 / 59–6860 / 57–6759 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 172 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (254 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1122:6308 (33.875, 135.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.8 °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 172 distinct grid cells holding 254 of the 255 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1122:6308 (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 34.00_135.625, lapse-corrected -102 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 384 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, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan · 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 marker34.686, 135.52 · in the densest population, 384 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 638 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 254 of them in the land cells it reads, of 255 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 470 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 31 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 383 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 638 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Illicium anisatum, photograph 1did not loadIllicium anisatum, photograph 2did not loadIllicium anisatum, photograph 3did not loadIllicium anisatum, photograph 4did not loadIllicium anisatum, photograph 5did not loadIllicium anisatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Chamaelirium japonicum Chamaelirium japonicum White stringflower Photo: CC BY, Jhonatan MatheusArachniodes simplicior Arachniodes simplicior Simpler hollyfern Photo: CC BY, りなべるDeutzia scabra Deutzia scabra Fuzzy deutzia Photo: CC BY-SA, harum.kohClematis williamsii Clematis williamsii Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Qwert1234Diplazium chinense Diplazium chinense Asian twinsorus fern Photo: CC BY-SA, harum.kohAlnus sieboldiana Alnus sieboldiana Siebold Alder Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968

Other Illicium 12 in the reference

Illicium arborescens Illicium arborescens Schisandraceae Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An WangIllicium dunnianum Illicium dunnianum Schisandraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedIllicium floridanum Illicium floridanum Florida anise-tree Photo: CC BY, Rob JohnIllicium henryi Illicium henryi Henry's Anise Photo: CC BY-SA, CamphoraIllicium lanceolatum Illicium lanceolatum Guandong Star Anise Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Golik Illicium leiophyllum Schisandraceae Illicium majus Illicium majus Schisandraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Zhangmoon618 Illicium merrillianum Schisandraceae Illicium parviflorum Illicium parviflorum Swamp star anise Photo: CC BY, Scott Ward Illicium parvifolium Schisandraceae Illicium simonsii Illicium simonsii Anise Tree Photo: CC BY-SA, This illustration was made by CitronIllicium verum Illicium verum Chinese star-anise Photo: CC0, Daderot

Names & registers

Also known as Badianifera anisatum; Badianifera officinarum; Illicium anisatum var. roseum; Illicium japonicum; Illicium linnaei and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Schisandraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto +1
Wild records
638 in range · 470 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; 34 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 17 at a zoo; 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 34.00_135.625, lapse-corrected -102 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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