Species
+

Illicium floridanum J.Ellis

Florida Anise, Florida anise-tree, Florida anisetree, Florida anisetree

Climate known 90 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

Illicium floridanum is an evergreen shrub native to the Gulf Coast area of the Southern United States, from Florida to Louisiana.

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

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 ›

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

Family
Schisandraceae
Described by
J.Ellis
Native to
Alabama, Florida, Georgia +5
Wild records
1201 in range· 456 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1546mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 160 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–40DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to April and June to August in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1546 mm a year, wettest July at 160 mm, driest October at 93 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.2 °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 Badianifera floridana (J.Ellis) Kuntze; Illicium floridanum f. album F.G.Mey. & Mazzeo; Illicium mexicanum A.C.Sm.; Illicium reticulatum Raf.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to April and June to August in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1112 mm of 1546 mm) takes 8 months, December to April and June to August. Mean temperature moves 17.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to February and June to October.

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 1546 mm a year, wettest July at 160 mm, driest October at 93 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1546 mm a year at the habitat, 1112 mm of it December to April and June to August. Wettest month July at 160 mm, driest October at 93 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1352 mm to 1740 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 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 -5.2 °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 -5.2 °C, the absolute minimum -14.3 °C, about 27 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.5 °C to 7.7 °C), warmest day 32.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.2 °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: 57 to 63% 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 15 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1546 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 603 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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°frost38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 17–40RH 57–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 603 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 °C15 / 12–1617 / 14–1821 / 18–2225 / 22–2529 / 26–2931 / 30–3232 / 31–3332 / 30–3330 / 28–3025 / 23–2620 / 18–2116 / 13–17
Night °C6 / 3–87 / 4–910 / 8–1214 / 11–1518 / 16–2022 / 20–2323 / 22–2423 / 22–2421 / 18–2215 / 13–1811 / 8–137 / 4–9
Rain mm131 / 106–147142 / 121–155148 / 130–158116 / 90–127110 / 87–133144 / 109–185160 / 127–202140 / 104–186116 / 94–15593 / 79–114115 / 88–127131 / 101–151
DLI18 / 17–2023 / 22–2530 / 29–3237 / 36–3940 / 39–4139 / 39–4038 / 37–3935 / 34–3631 / 30–3227 / 25–2721 / 19–2217 / 15–18
RH %59 / 58–5958 / 57–5958 / 56–5957 / 56–5959 / 57–6161 / 59–6363 / 61–6463 / 60–6460 / 58–6258 / 57–5858 / 57–5959 / 58–60

Each figure is the median across the 603 grid cells holding the 1045 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 1180:1799 (30.975, -90.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 603 distinct grid cells holding the 1045 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1180:1799 (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 31.00_-90.000, lapse-corrected +13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 95 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.
NativeAlabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.938, -88.917 · in the densest population, 973 records (81% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1201 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 456 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 68 km away. 128 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 156 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 1201 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Illicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanumIllicium floridanum

Photographs: (c) Will McFarland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

THE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF A RELICT–ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM ELLIS
Leonard B. Thien, David A. White, L. Y. Yatsu (1983) · American Journal of Botany
FUNCTIONAL SYNCARPY BY INTERCARPELLARY GROWTH OF POLLEN TUBES IN A PRIMITIVE APOCARPOUS ANGIOSPERM, ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM (ILLICIACEAE)
Elizabeth G. Williams, Tammy L. Sage, Leonard B. Thien (1993) · American Journal of Botany
FLORAL ONTOGENY OF ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM, WITH EMPHASIS ON STAMEN AND CARPEL DEVELOPMENT
Richard E. Robertson, Shirley C. Tucker (1979) · American Journal of Botany
New allo-Cedrane Type Sesquiterpene Hemiketals and Further Sesquiterpene Lactones from Fruits of Illicium floridanum
Thomas J. Schmidt, Eva Müller, Frank R. Fronczek (2001) · Journal of Natural Products
New Sesquiterpene Lactones from Illicium floridanum
Thomas J. Schmidt, Hildegard M. Schmidt, Eva Müller, Wilfried Peters (1998) · Journal of Natural Products
The Reproductive Biology of a Relict-Illicium floridanum Ellis
Leonard B. Thien, David A. White, L. Y. Yatsu (1983) · American Journal of Botany
Chromosome number and relationship in the Magnoliales
T. W. Whitaker (1933) · Journal of the Arnold Arboretum
Acclimation and Low-temperature Tolerance of Eight Woody Taxa
Orville M. Lindstrom, Michael A. Dirr (1989) · HortScience
The Causes of Self‐sterility in Natural Populations of the Relictual Angiosperm, Illicium floridanum (Illiciaceae)
Veronica Koehl, Leonard B. Thien, ELIZABETH G. HEIJ, Tammy L. Sage (2004) · Annals of Botany
Comparative Study of the Pollen Wall Development in Illicium floridanum (Illiciaceae) and Schisandra chinensis (Schisandraceae)
Nina I. Gabarayeva, Valentina V. Grigorjeva (2003) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Revision of the Structure of Dunnianin and Related Sesquiterpene Lactones from Illicium Species
Thomas J. Schmidt, Wilfried Peters, Frank R. Fronczek, Nikolaus H. Fischer (1997) · Journal of Natural Products
Floral Ontogeny of Illicium floridanum, with Emphasis on Stamen and Carpel Development
Richard E. Robertson, Shirley C. Tucker (1979) · American Journal of Botany

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 Illicium 1 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 67 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.