Species
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Mahonia japonica (Thunb.) DC.

Japanese ashberry, Japanese mahonia, Oregon grape, 뿔남천

Climate known 15 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

Berberis japonica is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to Taiwan. Despite the name, it is not native to Japan, though it has been known in cultivation there for centuries. The wild origins of this species have long puzzled botanists, but wild plants in Taiwan, previously known under the name Mahonia tikushiensis, appear most similar to the cultivated forms of B. japonica.

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

About the genus · Mahonia

Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.

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

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
(Thunb.) DC.
Native to
Taiwan
Wild records
67 in range· 20 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
3408mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 540 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–36DLI
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, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 3408 mm a year, wettest September at 540 mm, driest December at 96 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.4 °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 Aquifolium japonicum (Thunb.) Raf.; Berberis japonica (Thunb.) R.Br.; Berberis japonica (Thunb.) Spreng.; Berberis japonica subsp. gracillima (Fedde) Rehd.; Berberis japonica var. gracillima (Fedde) Rehder and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May 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 (2477 mm of 3408 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.2 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November 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 3408 mm a year, wettest September at 540 mm, driest December at 96 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

3408 mm a year at the habitat, 2477 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 540 mm, driest December at 96 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 3038 mm to 4568 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: 17 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 36 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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 1.4 °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 1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -4.9 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.4 °C to 12.4 °C), warmest day 23.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.4 °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: 64 to 69% 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 14 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 3408 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 41 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°frost27.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 17–36RH 64–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 41 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 °C14 / 8–1715 / 9–1817 / 11–2020 / 14–2321 / 16–2622 / 17–2823 / 18–2922 / 18–2821 / 17–2720 / 15–2518 / 12–2214 / 9–18
Night °C6 / 0–128 / 2–1310 / 4–1513 / 7–1815 / 9–2116 / 10–2417 / 11–2517 / 11–2516 / 10–2414 / 8–2111 / 5–188 / 1–14
Rain mm102 / 57–256183 / 133–333191 / 163–277217 / 186–261347 / 291–427425 / 338–589404 / 239–639455 / 319–705540 / 429–651306 / 141–551142 / 59–44496 / 49–280
DLI17 / 13–2119 / 15–2325 / 21–2929 / 26–3230 / 28–3230 / 29–3336 / 34–3833 / 31–3528 / 27–3024 / 21–2820 / 16–2317 / 13–21
RH %64 / 60–7366 / 62–7365 / 63–7365 / 64–7267 / 64–7067 / 64–7066 / 63–7068 / 64–7169 / 64–7268 / 63–7366 / 60–7365 / 59–72

Each figure is the median across the 41 grid cells holding the 67 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 1330:6015 (23.475, 120.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.7 °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 41 distinct grid cells holding the 67 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1330:6015 (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 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected +798 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1485 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.
NativeTaiwan· introduced: Portugal, Uzbekistan, Japan, Korea
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.491, 121.267 · in the densest population, 66 records (99% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 67 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 20 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 43 km away. 342 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 67 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonicaMahonia japonica

Photographs: eLJot, BY-SA via GBIF · CC BY-SA (2); Yushin Hozumi, BY-SA via GBIF · CC BY-SA (2); Makoto Makoto, BY-SA via GBIF · CC BY-SA; unknown, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Meise Botanic Garden, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0 via GBIF.

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

Chemical Constituents from the Stems of Mahonia Japonica
Tian‐Jye Hsieh, Yi‐Chen Chia, Yang‐Chang Wu, Chung‐Yi Chen (2004) · Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society
Chemical Constituents from the Leaves of Mahonia japonica
Tian Jye Hsieh, Yang‐Chang Wu, Wen Li Lo, Su Ching Chen (2004) · Zhōnghuá yàoxué zázhì
Chemical Constituents from the Stems of Mahonia japonica
謝天傑, 賈宜琛, WU Chang, 陳中一 (2004) · Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society
Studies on the Alkaloids of Berberidaceous Plants. IV
Masao Tomita, Tadashi Abe (1952) · YAKUGAKU ZASSHI
Identification of Volatiles in Headspace Emitted fromMahonia japonicaFlowers
Hazel S. Mactavish, Joanne M. Picone, Robin A. Clery (2003) · Journal of Essential Oil Research
Studies on the Alkaloids of Berberidaceous Plants. V. : Alkaloids of Mahonia japonica DC. (2).
Masao Tomita, Yasuo Inubushi, Noboru Mizoguchi (1953) · Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Studies on the Alkaloids of Berberidaceous Plants. III
Masao Tomita, Tadashi Abe (1952) · YAKUGAKU ZASSHI
Chemical Constituents from the Leaves of Mahonia japonica
謝天傑, WU Chang, 羅文利, 陳素靖 (2004) · Zhōnghuá yàoxué zázhì

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 Mahonia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 15 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.