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Litsea japonica; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2025-10-27

Litsea japonica (Thunb.) Juss.

Lauraceae · Japan, Korea +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Litsea japonica (Thunb.) Juss.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Thunb.) Mirb.

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Litsea japonica, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Litsea japonica, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Litsea japonica, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Litsea japonica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLitsea japonica, photograph (c) pavlaki1968, some rights reserved (CC BY)Litsea japonica, photograph (c) Daniel J. Layton, some rights reserved (CC BY) 16 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
4.3°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,851mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–36DLI
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 April 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.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,359 mm of 1,846 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.8 °C against a yearly mean of 15.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

1,846 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,359 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 292 mm, driest month December at 53 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,468 mm to 2,769 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,851 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,846 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: 14 to 36 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.5 °C to 12.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 4.3 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 71% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Litsea japonica through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 4.3 °C; 1,846 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 14–36RH 55–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 173 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 5–158 / 6–1611 / 9–1815 / 13–2018 / 17–2322 / 20–2626 / 24–2827 / 26–2924 / 23–2720 / 19–2415 / 13–2110 / 8–17
Night °C4 / 2–135 / 2–137 / 5–1511 / 9–1815 / 14–2119 / 18–2423 / 22–2625 / 24–2722 / 20–2517 / 15–2211 / 9–197 / 4–15
Rain mm69 / 34–13475 / 48–154121 / 75–225145 / 98–237168 / 116–269256 / 205–409292 / 230–362276 / 212–366222 / 176–31090 / 54–18479 / 52–15753 / 26–135
DLI15 / 13–1820 / 19–2327 / 25–2934 / 31–3636 / 34–3734 / 31–3633 / 31–3933 / 31–3728 / 27–3125 / 24–2618 / 17–1914 / 13–17
RH %55 / 53–5856 / 53–5858 / 56–6061 / 59–6264 / 61–6669 / 66–7171 / 67–7467 / 65–7063 / 61–6558 / 57–6056 / 55–5955 / 53–58

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 36% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 173 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (410 records in those cells; 27 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1129:6135 (33.525, 126.775). 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 173 distinct grid cells holding 410 of the 459 in-range records (27 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1129:6135 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 36% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_126.875, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 83 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 · 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 marker33.516, 126.753 · in the densest population, 385 records (60% 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 637 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 410 of them in the land cells it reads, of 459 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 378 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 18 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 178 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 of the 637 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Litsea japonica, photograph 1did not loadLitsea japonica, photograph 2did not loadLitsea japonica, photograph 3did not loadLitsea japonica, photograph 4did not loadLitsea japonica, photograph 5did not loadLitsea japonica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) pavlaki1968, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Daniel J. Layton, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Boehmeria splitgerbera Boehmeria splitgerbera Urticaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPeucedanum japonicum Peucedanum japonicum Coastal hog fennel Photo: CC BY, Weiting LiuOphiopogon jaburan Ophiopogon jaburan Lilyturf Photo: CC0, author not statedLysimachia mauritiana Lysimachia mauritiana Spoonleaf yellow loosestrife Photo: CC BY, Rainer BreitlingCyrtomium falcatum Cyrtomium falcatum House holly-fern Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Rhaphiolepis umbellata Rhaphiolepis umbellata Japanese-hawthorn Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Litsea 15 in the reference

Litsea acutivena Litsea acutivena Lauraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedLitsea aestivalis Litsea aestivalis Pondspice Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldLitsea akoensis Litsea akoensis Lauraceae Photo: CC BY, 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi) Litsea auriculata Lauraceae Litsea calicaris Litsea calicaris Lauraceae Photo: CC BY, 大澤風季 ohsawa_FukiLitsea coreana Litsea coreana Sword-leaf litsea Photo: CC BY, りなべるLitsea cubeba Litsea cubeba Mountain-pepper Photo: CC0, author not statedLitsea garciae Litsea garciae Engkala Photo: CC BY, Ong Jyh SengLitsea glaucescens Litsea glaucescens Lauraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ErnestolapeñaLitsea glutinosa Litsea glutinosa Bolly beech Photo: CC BY-SA, Margaret BurgerLitsea hypophaea Litsea hypophaea Lauraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedLitsea monopetala Litsea monopetala Lauraceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Fiwa japonica; Litsea thunbergii; Malapoenna japonica; Tetradenia japonica; Tetranthera japonica and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lauraceae
Described by
(Thunb.) Juss.
Native to
Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto
Wild records
637 in range · 378 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 4183539 is Litsea japonica (Thunb.) Mirb.; the page links Kew's Litsea japonica (Thunb.) Juss., 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; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (26 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 33.50_126.875, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (36% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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