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Illicium majus; photograph Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAKrzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Illicium majus Hook.f. & Thomson

Schisandraceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +2

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Illicium majus Hook.f. & Thomson: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil. & Thomson.

No habitat climate
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Illicium majus, photograph Zhangmoon618, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium majus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium majus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium majus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium majus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium majus, photograph Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 8 photographs ›

Summary

Illicium majus is a species of flowering plant in the family Schisandraceae. It is a tree with subleathery leaves and poisonous fruits. The species is native to China, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Illicium majus", 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

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: 151 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km. 151 of the 151 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though they count for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Myanmar, Vietnam · 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 marker25.602, 110.586 · in the densest population, 74 records (49% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 151 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 79 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 61 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 151 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 2° block of the 151 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 majus, photograph 1did not loadIllicium majus, photograph 2did not loadIllicium majus, photograph 3did not loadIllicium majus, photograph 4did not loadIllicium majus, photograph 5did not loadIllicium majus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Zhangmoon618, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4); Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Other Illicium 12 in the reference

Illicium anisatum Illicium anisatum Aniseed tree Photo: CC BY, Saryu Mae 前 朝琉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 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 major; Glochidion cavaleriei; Illicium cavaleriei; Illicium spathulatum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Schisandraceae
Described by
Hook.f. & Thomson
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Myanmar +1
Wild records
151 in range · 79 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3592300 is Illicium majus Hook.fil. & Thomson; the page links Kew's Illicium majus Hook.f. & Thomson, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22151 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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