Pachysandra terminalis Siebold & Zucc.
Carpet Box, Carpet box, Japanese spurge, Japanese pachysandra, Japanese Pachysandra, Japanese mountain spurge
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
Pachysandra terminalis, the Japanese pachysandra, carpet box or Japanese spurge, is a species of flowering plant in the boxwood family Buxaceae, native to Japan, Korea and China and introduced to eastern North America. It is a slow-growing, spreading evergreen perennial growing to 10 cm (4 in) tall by 60 cm (24 in) broad, with alternate, simple, glossy leaves, and creeping stems. The leaves may yellow in direct sunlight or in winter. When growing in a spreading mass of many plants, a dense cover is formed.
Text from Wikipedia, “Pachysandra terminalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Pachysandra
Pachysandra is a genus of five species of evergreen perennials or subshrubs, belonging to the boxwood family Buxaceae. The species are native to eastern Asia and southeast North America, some reaching a height of 20–45 cm (7.9–17.7 in), with only weakly woody stems. The leaves are alternate, leathery, with a coarsely toothed margin, and are typically 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) long. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Pachysandra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Pachysandra termialis Siebold & Zucc.; Pachysandra terminalis f. subrhombea Makino; Pachysandra terminalis f. variegata (Norton) Manning; Pachysandra terminalis f. variegata (Norton) Manning ex Hegi; Pachysandra terminalis var. variegata Norton.
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 (1185 mm of 1606 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.2 °C against a yearly mean of 9.9 °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 1606 mm a year, wettest September at 214 mm, driest February at 70 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1606 mm a year at the habitat, 1185 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 214 mm, driest February at 70 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1009 mm to 2542 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: 13 to 34 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 34 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).
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 -10.4 °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 -10.4 °C, the absolute minimum -16.1 °C, about 136 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.7 °C to -0.2 °C), warmest day 25.1 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.4 °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: 60 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 1 / -6–8 | 2 / -5–10 | 5 / -1–14 | 12 / 6–20 | 17 / 11–24 | 21 / 16–28 | 24 / 19–30 | 25 / 21–29 | 21 / 18–26 | 15 / 11–20 | 9 / 3–15 | 3 / -3–11 |
| Night °C | -7 / -15–-0 | -6 / -13–2 | -3 / -8–5 | 3 / -2–11 | 9 / 4–16 | 13 / 9–20 | 17 / 13–22 | 18 / 15–23 | 15 / 10–19 | 9 / 4–14 | 2 / -4–8 | -4 / -11–3 |
| Rain mm | 76 / 13–167 | 70 / 19–143 | 100 / 42–176 | 115 / 67–162 | 142 / 96–201 | 156 / 91–254 | 201 / 129–298 | 207 / 137–289 | 214 / 101–292 | 150 / 82–202 | 105 / 38–208 | 70 / 15–196 |
| DLI | 15 / 13–18 | 20 / 18–23 | 27 / 23–29 | 33 / 29–35 | 34 / 32–36 | 33 / 28–35 | 30 / 28–34 | 30 / 26–33 | 24 / 22–26 | 19 / 18–22 | 15 / 13–18 | 13 / 10–17 |
| RH % | 61 / 55–67 | 61 / 56–65 | 60 / 57–63 | 60 / 57–62 | 61 / 58–63 | 65 / 61–68 | 67 / 62–71 | 66 / 62–70 | 65 / 62–67 | 61 / 59–65 | 61 / 58–65 | 61 / 56–67 |
Each figure is the median across the 79 grid cells holding the 86 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 1043:6402 (37.825, 140.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °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 79 distinct grid cells holding the 86 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1043:6402 (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 38.00_140.000, lapse-corrected +30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 582 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Emily Summerbell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) betsyyyy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mark Apgar, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Adam Leigh, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) feralbeetle, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
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 Pachysandra terminalis, 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.
Cercidiphyllum japonicum Katsura
Hosta sieboldii Siebold's Plantain Lily
Ligularia dentata Leopard Plant
Prunus sargentii North Japanese hill cherry
Iris ensata Beaked Iris Pinguicula ramosa LentibulariaceaeOther Pachysandra 1 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








