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Prunus japonica; photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BY曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Prunus japonica Thunb.

Japanese bush cherry; Chinese bush cherry; Chinese plumtree; Japanese almond cherry

Rosaceae · Manchuria, China North-Central +2 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Prunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPrunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPrunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPrunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPrunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPrunus japonica, photograph 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 19 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-14.6°C
Record low -20.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,368mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Prunus japonica (also Cerasus japonica), also called Japanese bush cherry, Oriental bush cherry, or Korean bush cherry is a shrub species in the genus Prunus that is widely cultivated for ornamental use. Its native range extends from Central China through to the Korean peninsula.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Prunus japonica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Prunus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Prunus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,031 mm of 1,343 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.5 °C against a yearly mean of 12.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,343 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,031 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 312 mm, driest month December at 22 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,069 mm to 1,652 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,368 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,343 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -14.6 °C, the absolute minimum -20.1 °C, 5,563 frost nights in 44 years, 126.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -5.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -11.2 °C to 1.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +5 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Prunus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Prunus japonica through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -5.6 °C; 1,343 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-20.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–37RH 55–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 304 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C2 / -1–64 / 2–89 / 6–1216 / 12–1821 / 17–2324 / 21–2727 / 24–2827 / 26–2924 / 22–2518 / 16–2011 / 9–145 / 2–8
Night °C-6 / -11–2-4 / -8–20 / -2–56 / 4–1012 / 10–1417 / 15–1921 / 19–2322 / 19–2417 / 14–219 / 7–152 / 0–9-3 / -7–4
Rain mm28 / 18–3932 / 20–5254 / 38–8378 / 60–127103 / 79–150158 / 121–231312 / 213–407291 / 207–348167 / 125–20351 / 40–5947 / 33–5922 / 17–36
DLI17 / 15–1923 / 21–2429 / 28–3035 / 34–3637 / 36–3835 / 34–3629 / 27–3229 / 27–3327 / 26–2924 / 23–2517 / 16–1915 / 14–17
RH %56 / 53–5955 / 53–5755 / 54–5955 / 53–6158 / 55–6462 / 59–6867 / 64–7266 / 64–6962 / 60–6458 / 56–5957 / 55–5856 / 54–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 304 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (412 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1084:6175 (35.775, 128.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 304 distinct grid cells holding 412 of the 416 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1084:6175 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_128.750, lapse-corrected +5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 246 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.426, 127.332 · in the densest population, 308 records (56% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 550 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 412 of them in the land cells it reads, of 416 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 238 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 147 km away. 37 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 134 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 550 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Prunus japonica, photograph 1did not loadPrunus japonica, photograph 2did not loadPrunus japonica, photograph 3did not loadPrunus japonica, photograph 4did not loadPrunus japonica, photograph 5did not loadPrunus japonica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Miscanthus sacchariflorus Miscanthus sacchariflorus Amur silvergrass Photo: CC BY, Brad McLeodJuniperus rigida Juniperus rigida Needle juniper Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaTaraxacum coreanum Taraxacum coreanum White-flowering Korean dandelion Photo: CC BY, 김재원Chamaecrista nomame Chamaecrista nomame Field sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Hemerocallis hakuunensis Hemerocallis hakuunensis Baekunsan daylily Photo: CC BY, Martin KalfatovicIndigofera kirilowii Indigofera kirilowii Kirilow's indigo Photo: CC BY, Jane Charlen

Other Prunus 125 in the reference

Prunus africana Prunus africana African cherry Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo Prunus alaica Rosaceae Prunus americana Prunus americana American plum Photo: CC BY, Tom NortonPrunus amygdalus Prunus amygdalus Almond Photo: CC BY-SA, Ken YoungPrunus andersonii Prunus andersonii Desert peach Photo: CC BY, Tom WainwrightPrunus angustifolia Prunus angustifolia Cherokee plum Photo: CC0, author not stated Prunus apetala Taiwan cherry Prunus armeniaca Prunus armeniaca Apricot Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Prunus avium Prunus avium Wild cherry Photo: CC0, author not statedPrunus bifrons Prunus bifrons Rosaceae Photo: CC0, Andreas Manz Prunus brachypetala Kurdish mountain cherry Prunus brachystachya Rosaceae all 126 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Amygdalus glandulosa; Cerasus japonica; Cerasus japonica f. albiflora; Cerasus japonica var. engleri; Cerasus nakaii var. porphyrea and 24 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast +1
Wild records
550 in range · 238 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_128.750, lapse-corrected +5 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Prunus japonica Thunb. (the item's: IPNI 927360-1, POWO 729847-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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