Species
+

Phellodendron amurense Rupr.

Amur cork tree, Amur cork-tree, Amur corktree, Amur corktree

Climate known 81 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

Phellodendron amurense is a species of tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the Amur cork tree. It is a major source of huáng bò, one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. The Ainu people used its fruit, called "shikerebe-ni", as a painkiller. It is known as hwangbyeok in Korean and (キハダ) kihada in Japanese.

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

About the genus · Phellodendron

Phellodendron, or cork-tree, is a genus of deciduous, dioecious trees in the family Rutaceae, native to east and northeast Asia. It has leathery, pinnate leaves and yellow, clumped flowers. The name refers to the thick and corky bark of some species in the genus.

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

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
Rupr.
Native to
Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is. +9
Wild records
545 in range· 411 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1458mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 208 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–35DLI
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 1458 mm a year, wettest September at 208 mm, driest December at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.0 °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 Phellodendron amurense f. insulare (Nakai) H.S.Kim; Phellodendron amurense f. molle (Nakai) W.Lee; Phellodendron amurense f. molle (Nakai) Y.C.Chu, 1989; Phellodendron amurense f. molle (Nakai) Y.C.Zhu; Phellodendron amurense var. molle (Nakai) S.H.Li & S.Z.Liou and 5 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 (1109 mm of 1458 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 14.7 °C against a yearly mean of 7.8 °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 1458 mm a year, wettest September at 208 mm, driest December at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1458 mm a year at the habitat, 1109 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 208 mm, driest December at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 751 mm to 2879 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 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 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 9, 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 -16.0 °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 -16.0 °C, the absolute minimum -22.9 °C, about 172 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -10.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -21.8 °C to -2.5 °C), warmest day 23.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.0 °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 68% 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 -3 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from -11 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1458 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 409 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -22.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost27.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-22.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 13–35RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 409 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 °C-3 / -10–4-2 / -7–63 / -1–1010 / 6–1616 / 11–2020 / 15–2423 / 19–2724 / 21–2820 / 17–2413 / 11–187 / 1–130 / -7–7
Night °C-11 / -22–-3-10 / -18–-2-5 / -10–11 / -2–77 / 4–1212 / 9–1617 / 13–2018 / 15–2113 / 10–187 / 2–12-1 / -8–6-7 / -18–1
Rain mm60 / 11–19958 / 13–16385 / 23–19893 / 43–193121 / 70–228153 / 83–302205 / 130–428195 / 137–363208 / 92–333134 / 47–24090 / 27–22156 / 16–201
DLI15 / 11–1821 / 18–2428 / 26–3033 / 31–3535 / 33–3733 / 29–3630 / 27–3329 / 27–3325 / 23–2721 / 18–2315 / 11–1813 / 9–16
RH %60 / 55–6859 / 54–6559 / 53–6359 / 53–6261 / 56–6565 / 60–7068 / 64–7267 / 64–7064 / 60–6860 / 56–6560 / 54–6459 / 55–67

Each figure is the median across the 409 grid cells holding the 495 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 1062:6378 (36.875, 138.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 409 distinct grid cells holding the 495 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1062:6378 (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 37.00_138.750, lapse-corrected +486 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1270 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.
NativeAmur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan· introduced: Bulgaria, Romania, Altay, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Ontario, Québec, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.331, 138.603 · in the densest population, 263 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 545 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 411 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 569 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 50 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 545 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Phellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurensePhellodendron amurense

Photographs: (c) Taro Ietaka, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Jacy Chen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Antimicrobial Activity of Berberine Alone and in Combination with Ampicillin or Oxacillin Against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Hyeon‐Hee Yu, Kang‐Ju Kim, Jeong‐Dan Cha, Haekyoung Kim (2005) · Journal of Medicinal Food
Soil respiration in six temperate forests in China
Chuankuan Wang, Jinyan Yang, Quan‐Zhi Zhang (2006) · Global Change Biology
Berberine Antifungal Activity in Fluconazole-Resistant Pathogenic Yeasts: Action Mechanism Evaluated by Flow Cytometry and Biofilm Growth Inhibition in Candida spp
Anderson Ramos da Silva, João Batista de Andrade Neto, Cecília Rocha da Silva, Rosana de Sousa Campos (2016) · Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Phellodendron amurenseand Its Major Alkaloid Compound, Berberine Ameliorates Scopolamine-Induced Neuronal Impairment and Memory Dysfunction in Rats
Bombi Lee, Bongjun Sur, Insop Shim, Hyejung Lee (2012) · Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
Phenolic constituents of phellodendron amurense bark
Yoshiteru Ida, Yohko Satoh, Masumi Ohtsuka, Miki Nagasao (1993) · Phytochemistry
Isolation of limonoids and alkaloids fromPhellodendron amurense and their multidrug resistance (MDR) reversal activity
Yong Deuk Min, Hak Cheol Kwon, Min Yang, Kyu Ha Lee (2007) · Archives of Pharmacal Research
Dietary administration of berberine or Phellodendron amurense extract inhibits cell cycle progression and lung tumorigenesis
Michael A. James, Huijing Fu, Yan Liu, Da‐Ren Chen (2010) · Molecular Carcinogenesis
Butanol fraction containing berberine or related compound from nexrutine® inhibits NFκB signaling and induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells
Sri Balasubashini Muralimanoharan, Ajaikumar B. Kunnumakkara, Shylesh Bhaskaran, Kaustubh H. Kulkarni (2008) · The Prostate
Factors influencing early vegetation establishment following soil scarification in a mixed forest in northern Japan
Toshiya Yoshida, Yoko Iga, Megumi Ozawa, Mahoko Noguchi (2005) · Canadian Journal of Forest Research

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.

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 123 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.