Species
+

Magnolia kobus DC.

Kobus Magnolia, Kobus magnolia, Mokryeon (Kobus magnolia), kobushi magnolia

Climate known 77 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Magnolia kobus, known as mokryeon, kobus magnolia, or kobushi magnolia, is a species of Magnolia native to Japan and Korea and occasionally cultivated in temperate areas. It is a deciduous, small to tall tree which has a slow rate of growth but can reach 8–15 m (25–50 ft) in height and up to 10 m (35 ft) in spread.

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

About the genus · Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 to 340 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The natural range of Magnolia species is disjunct, with a main center in east, south and southeast Asia and a secondary center in South America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in eastern North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Magnolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Magnoliaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Japan, Korea
Wild records
524 in range· 391 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1587mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 224 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–35DLI
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 October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1587 mm a year, wettest July at 224 mm, driest December at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.5 °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 Buergeria obovata Siebold & Zucc.; Magnolia borealis (Sarg.) Kudô; Magnolia kobus f. horisontalidivaricata V.V.Byalt & Firsov; Magnolia kobus var. borealis Sarg.; Magnolia kobus var. kobus and 8 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October 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 (1187 mm of 1587 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.7 °C against a yearly mean of 11.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

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 1587 mm a year, wettest July at 224 mm, driest December at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1587 mm a year at the habitat, 1187 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 224 mm, driest December at 65 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1230 mm to 2617 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: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 11, 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 -10.5 °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 -10.5 °C, the absolute minimum -15.5 °C, about 122 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -12.1 °C to 0.1 °C), warmest day 26.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.5 °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: 59 to 67% 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 2 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1587 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 413 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.8 °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°frost31.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–35RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 413 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 °C2 / -3–83 / -3–87 / 1–1214 / 8–1719 / 14–2222 / 18–2525 / 21–2827 / 23–2923 / 19–2517 / 13–2011 / 6–155 / -1–10
Night °C-7 / -12–0-6 / -11–0-2 / -7–44 / -0–910 / 6–1415 / 11–1819 / 15–2220 / 16–2316 / 12–209 / 5–143 / -2–8-3 / -8–3
Rain mm68 / 32–21169 / 36–161101 / 55–178112 / 74–167131 / 96–203164 / 110–275224 / 143–385200 / 135–319208 / 162–295148 / 58–20897 / 51–23465 / 27–228
DLI16 / 13–1922 / 19–2428 / 26–3034 / 31–3635 / 33–3733 / 29–3530 / 28–3331 / 28–3325 / 23–2721 / 19–2416 / 13–1815 / 11–17
RH %60 / 54–6659 / 55–6459 / 56–6259 / 56–6161 / 57–6364 / 61–6767 / 63–7066 / 62–6964 / 61–6861 / 58–6560 / 57–6459 / 55–65

Each figure is the median across the 413 grid cells holding the 517 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 1075:6369 (36.225, 138.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °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 413 distinct grid cells holding the 517 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1075:6369 (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 36.00_138.750, lapse-corrected -148 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 684 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.
NativeJapan, Korea· introduced: Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.334, 138.34 · in the densest population, 190 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 524 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 391 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 104 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 of the 524 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Magnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobusMagnolia kobus

Photographs: (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bill Keim, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

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

Biological synthesis of gold nanoparticles using Magnolia kobus and Diopyros kaki leaf extracts
Jae Yong Song, Hyeon-Kyeong Jang, Beom Soo Kim (2009) · Process Biochemistry
Biological synthesis of copper nanoparticles using Magnolia kobus leaf extract and their antibacterial activity
H J Lee, Jae Yong Song, Beom Soo Kim (2013) · Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology
More than a 600‐fold variation in nitrogen dioxide assimilation among 217 plant taxa
Hiromichi Morikawa, Asa Higaki, Masako Nohno, Misa Takahashi (1998) · Plant Cell & Environment
Intraspecific Variation of Floral Scent Chemistry in Magnolia kobus DC. (Magnoliaceae)
Hiroshi Azuma, Masao Toyota, Yoshinori Asakawa (2001) · Journal of Plant Research
Inhibition of mild steel corrosion using Magnolia kobus extract in sulphuric acid medium
Ill‐Min Chung, R. Malathy, Rameshkumar Priyadharshini, Venkatesan Hemapriya (2020) · Materials Today Communications
Hydroperoxysesquiterpene and lignan constituents of Magnolia kobus
Toshiyuki Iida, Mayumi Nakano, Kazuo Ito (1982) · Phytochemistry
Sucrose density gradient centrifugation separation of gold and silver nanoparticles synthesized using Magnolia kobus plant leaf extracts
So Hyun Lee, Bipinchandra K. Salunke, Beom Soo Kim (2014) · Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering
Antiinflammatory activity of methanol extract isolated from stem bark of Magnolia kobus
Jong Soon Kang, Ki Hoon Lee, Mi Hwa Han, Hyunju Lee (2008) · Phytotherapy Research
Antibacterial and fungicidal activities of ethanol extracts of 38 species of plants
V. V. Zazharskyi, P. О. Davydenko, О. М. Кулішенко, І. В. Боровик (2020) · Biosystems Diversity

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 Magnolia 12 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 109 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.