Mahonia japonica (Thunb.) DC.
Japanese ashberry, Japanese mahonia, Oregon grape, 뿔남천
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.
At a glance
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.
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.
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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 14 / 8–17 | 15 / 9–18 | 17 / 11–20 | 20 / 14–23 | 21 / 16–26 | 22 / 17–28 | 23 / 18–29 | 22 / 18–28 | 21 / 17–27 | 20 / 15–25 | 18 / 12–22 | 14 / 9–18 |
| Night °C | 6 / 0–12 | 8 / 2–13 | 10 / 4–15 | 13 / 7–18 | 15 / 9–21 | 16 / 10–24 | 17 / 11–25 | 17 / 11–25 | 16 / 10–24 | 14 / 8–21 | 11 / 5–18 | 8 / 1–14 |
| Rain mm | 102 / 57–256 | 183 / 133–333 | 191 / 163–277 | 217 / 186–261 | 347 / 291–427 | 425 / 338–589 | 404 / 239–639 | 455 / 319–705 | 540 / 429–651 | 306 / 141–551 | 142 / 59–444 | 96 / 49–280 |
| DLI | 17 / 13–21 | 19 / 15–23 | 25 / 21–29 | 29 / 26–32 | 30 / 28–32 | 30 / 29–33 | 36 / 34–38 | 33 / 31–35 | 28 / 27–30 | 24 / 21–28 | 20 / 16–23 | 17 / 13–21 |
| RH % | 64 / 60–73 | 66 / 62–73 | 65 / 63–73 | 65 / 64–72 | 67 / 64–70 | 67 / 64–70 | 66 / 63–70 | 68 / 64–71 | 69 / 64–72 | 68 / 63–73 | 66 / 60–73 | 65 / 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
Photographs
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.
Related
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.
Hypericum geminiflorum Hypericaceae
Dendrobium nobile Noble Dendrobium
Mahonia oiwakensis Berberidaceae Stephania glandulifera Menispermaceae
Photinia serratifolia Chinese Photinia Stephania yunnanensis MenispermaceaeOther Mahonia 5 in the reference
Mahonia aquifolium Oregon grape
Mahonia bealei Beale's Barberry
Mahonia nervosa Cascade Oregon-grape
Mahonia oiwakensis Berberidaceae
Mahonia repens Oregon Grape 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.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 downloadinat.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 2026-09-20commons 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: skippedopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery 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.

