Species
+

Ligustrum japonicum Thunb.

Japanese Privet, Japanese Wax-Leaved Privette, Japanese Wax-leaved Privet, Japanese privet

Climate known 70 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

Ligustrum japonicum, known as wax-leaf privet or Japanese privet is a species of Ligustrum (privet) native to central and southern Japan and Korea. It is widely cultivated in other regions, and is naturalized in California and in the southeastern United States from Texas to Virginia.

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

About the genus · Ligustrum

A privet is a flowering plant in the genus Ligustrum. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees, with a native distribution from Europe to tropical and subtropical Asia, and with one species each native to Australia and north Africa. Some species have become widely naturalized or invasive where introduced. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Oleaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
China Southeast, Japan, Korea +2
Wild records
831 in range· 556 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1860mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 278 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–35DLI
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: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1860 mm a year, wettest July at 278 mm, driest December at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.5 °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 Ligustridium japonicum (Thunb.) Spach; Ligustrum amamianum Koidz.; Ligustrum amamianum var. rotundifolium (Blume) B.M.Miao; Ligustrum coriaceum Carrière; Ligustrum coriaceum Jacob-Makoy and 32 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1304 mm of 1860 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.4 °C against a yearly mean of 15.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

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 1860 mm a year, wettest July at 278 mm, driest December at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1860 mm a year at the habitat, 1304 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 278 mm, driest December at 55 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1384 mm to 3035 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: 16 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 35 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -2.5 °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 -2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -11.0 °C, about 13 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.5 °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: 56 to 68% 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 8 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 3 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1860 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 658 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.8 °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°frost33.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–35RH 56–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 658 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 °C8 / 5–159 / 6–1612 / 9–1917 / 14–2221 / 17–2424 / 21–2727 / 24–2928 / 26–3025 / 23–2820 / 19–2415 / 13–2111 / 8–17
Night °C3 / -2–93 / -1–106 / 2–1311 / 7–1715 / 12–2019 / 17–2323 / 21–2524 / 22–2621 / 18–2416 / 12–2010 / 6–165 / 1–12
Rain mm64 / 33–13680 / 48–158133 / 75–222144 / 101–248177 / 122–303250 / 165–471278 / 157–393241 / 138–353214 / 164–383131 / 53–23393 / 48–17255 / 25–133
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 19–2427 / 25–2933 / 30–3535 / 32–3732 / 28–3533 / 30–3633 / 31–3527 / 24–2924 / 19–2618 / 16–2016 / 14–18
RH %56 / 53–6257 / 54–6258 / 56–6359 / 57–6462 / 59–6667 / 63–7068 / 64–7367 / 63–6963 / 62–6660 / 57–6358 / 55–6256 / 54–61

Each figure is the median across the 658 grid cells holding the 803 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 1292:5858 (25.375, 112.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.8 °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 658 distinct grid cells holding the 803 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1292:5858 (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 25.50_113.125, lapse-corrected -241 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 261 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.
NativeChina Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan· introduced: Lesotho, Marianas, Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker34.496, 127.228 · in the densest population, 575 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 831 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 556 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 277 km away. 306 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 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 4° block of the 831 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ligustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicumLigustrum japonicum

Photographs: (c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) dctxuftotk, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Clément Maouche, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Screening for Antioxidant Activity in Edible Plant Products: Comparison of Low-Density Lipoprotein Oxidation Assay, DPPH Radical Scavenging Assay, and Folin−Ciocalteu Assay
Takuya Katsube, Hiromasa Tabata, Yukari Ohta, Yukikazu Yamasaki (2004) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Influence of Mulches on Weed Control, Soil pH, Soil Nitrogen Content, and Growth of Ligustrum japonicum
Lorraine Ann Billeaud, Jayne M. Zajicek (1989) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Isolation of Antifungal Compounds from Gardenia jasminoides
Raden Arthur Ario Lelono, Shin‐Ichiro Tachibana, K. Itoh (2009) · Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences
Measurement of Mass Flow Rate of Sap in Ligustrum japonicum
J. L. Heilman, Jay M. Ham (1990) · HortScience
Three secoiridoid glucosides from Ligustrum japonicum
Ken‐ichiro Inoue, T Nishioka, Takao Tanahashi, Hiroyuki Inouye (1982) · Phytochemistry
Chemical constituents from the fruits of Ligustrum japonicum and their inhibitory effects on T cell activation
Quynh-Mai Thi Ngo, Hyun‐Su Lee, Van Thu Nguyen, Jeong Ah Kim (2017) · Phytochemistry
New Secoiridoid Glucosides from Ligustrum japonicum
Yoshiyasu Fukuyama, Kazuyo Koshino, Takashi Hasegawa, Toshihide Yamada (1987) · Planta Medica
A New Neuroprotective Compound ofLigustrum japonicumLeaves
Sang Hyun Sung, Eun Sil Kim, Ki Yong Lee, Mi Kyeong Lee (2006) · Planta Medica

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 Ligustrum 5 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 188 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.