Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Illicium verum; 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

Illicium verum Hook.f.

Chinese star-anise; Star-anise; Staranise tree

Schisandraceae · China Southeast, Vietnam

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

No habitat climate
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Illicium verum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium verum, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium verum, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium verum, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium verum, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIllicium verum, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

Illicium verum (star anise or badian, Chinese star anise, star anise seed, star aniseed and star of anise) is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to South China and northeast Vietnam. Its star-shaped pericarp fruits harvested just before ripening are a spice that closely resembles anise in flavor. Its primary production country is China, followed by Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Star anise oil is highly fragrant, used in cooking, perfumery, soaps, toothpastes, mouthwashes, and skin creams. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Illicium verum", 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: Only 2 distinct land cells of the climate grid hold an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope. 99 of the 101 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 Southeast, Vietnam · introduced: China South-Central, Cambodia, Myanmar · 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 marker23.39, 106.62 · in the densest population, 65 records (64% 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 101 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 49 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 31 records outside the WCVP native range not used. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 99 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 101 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 verum, photograph 1did not loadIllicium verum, photograph 2did not loadIllicium verum, photograph 3did not loadIllicium verum, photograph 4did not loadIllicium verum, photograph 5did not loadIllicium verum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4).

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 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 Citron

Names & registers

Also known as Illicium san-ki; Illicium stellatum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Schisandraceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
China Southeast, Vietnam
Wild records
101 in range · 49 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 2889756 is Illicium verum Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Illicium verum Hook.f., 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; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22only 2 distinct land cells of the climate grid hold an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope
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 23 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…