Species
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Styrax japonicus Siebold & Zucc.

Japanese snowbell, Japanese snowbell, Japanese storax, Snowbell tree

Climate known 65 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Styrax japonicus , also known as the Japanese snowbell, is a species of flowering plant in the family Styracaceae, native to Korea, Japan, and Southern China. Growing to 12 m (39 ft) tall by 8 m (26 ft) broad, it is a graceful, spreading deciduous tree with oval, upward-facing leaves which occasionally turn yellow or orange before falling in autumn. Masses of slightly fragrant, bell-shaped white flowers hang from the branches in summer, followed by fruits (drupes) which resemble olives in both shape and colour.

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

About the genus · Styrax

Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America. The resin obtained from the tree is called benzoin or storax, often used as a vanilla-like component in perfumery.

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

Family
Styracaceae
Described by
Siebold & Zucc.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +12
Wild records
1347 in range· 816 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1627mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 278 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–35DLI
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 September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1627 mm a year, wettest July at 278 mm, driest December at 44 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.4 °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 Cyrta japonica (Siebold & Zucc.) Miers; Styrax bodinieri H.Lév.; Styrax duclouxii Perkins; Styrax grandiflorus Griff.; Styrax japonica subsp. kotoensis (Hayata) Masam. & Suzuki, 1939 and 25 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September 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 (1200 mm of 1627 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.4 °C against a yearly mean of 13.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

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 1627 mm a year, wettest July at 278 mm, driest December at 44 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1627 mm a year at the habitat, 1200 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 278 mm, driest December at 44 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1252 mm to 2696 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: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 13, 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 -4.4 °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 -4.4 °C, the absolute minimum -8.8 °C, about 86 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.7 °C to 4.3 °C), warmest day 27.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.4 °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: 57 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1627 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1006 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.5 °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°40°frost35.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–35RH 57–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1006 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 °C5 / 1–106 / 3–1210 / 7–1616 / 13–2121 / 17–2524 / 21–2727 / 24–2928 / 26–3024 / 22–2719 / 17–2213 / 10–178 / 4–12
Night °C-2 / -8–4-1 / -6–52 / -2–88 / 4–1313 / 9–1817 / 14–2121 / 18–2422 / 19–2518 / 15–2212 / 8–176 / 1–111 / -4–7
Rain mm47 / 22–17057 / 26–16195 / 48–197122 / 71–217148 / 95–256208 / 137–339278 / 162–392245 / 142–349199 / 115–319112 / 50–21872 / 43–18844 / 20–162
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 18–2428 / 22–3033 / 27–3635 / 30–3733 / 28–3631 / 28–3531 / 28–3426 / 23–2823 / 19–2517 / 15–1915 / 13–17
RH %57 / 53–6457 / 54–6358 / 55–6359 / 55–6361 / 57–6564 / 60–6967 / 63–7266 / 63–6963 / 61–6760 / 57–6459 / 55–6358 / 54–63

Each figure is the median across the 1006 grid cells holding the 1322 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 1074:6401 (36.275, 140.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °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 1006 distinct grid cells holding the 1322 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1074:6401 (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 36.50_140.000, lapse-corrected -102 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 40 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, East Himalaya, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines· introduced: Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.288, 127.14 · in the densest population, 733 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1347 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 816 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 822 km away. 107 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 25 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 1347 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Styrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicusStyrax japonicus

Photographs: (c) ITÔ, Hiroki, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

A Study on Emission Rate of BVOCs from Broad-leaved Trees at Jeju Island
Hyeong-Cheol Kim, Ki-Ho Lee (2012) · Journal of Environmental Science International
Predicting the Potential Habitat, Host Plants, and Geographical Distribution of Pochazia shantungensis (Hemiptera: Ricaniidae) in Korea
Dong Eon Kim, Heejo Lee, Mi Jeong Kim, Do-Hun Lee (2015) · Korean journal of applied entomology
Freeze stress of deciduous trees induces attacks by opportunistic ambrosia beetles
Christopher M. Ranger, Peter B. Schultz, Steven D. Frank, Michael E. Reding (2018) · Agricultural and Forest Entomology
Human influence, regeneration, and conservation of the Gotjawal forests in Jeju Island, Korea
Hong-Gu Kang, Chansoo Kim, Eun‐Shik Kim (2013) · Journal of Marine and Island Cultures
Occurrence Ecology of Ricania sp. (Hemiptera: Ricaniidae) and Selection of Environmental Friendly Agricultural Materials for Control
Duck-Soo Choi, Do-Ik Kim, Sug-Ju Ko, Beom-Ryong Kang (2012) · Korean journal of applied entomology
De Novo Transcriptomic Analysis and Development of EST–SSRs for Styrax japonicus
Wei Li, Cuiping Zhang, Xinqiang Jiang, Qingchao Liu (2018) · Forests
Maturity and temperature stratification affect the germination ofStyrax japonicusseeds
Mark S. Roh, Jo‐Ann Bentz, Paul Wang, Ercheng Li (2004) · The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology
Antinociceptive effects of flower extracts and the active fraction from Styrax japonicus
Lei He, Ying Zhou, Guangjun Wan, Wencui Wang (2021) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Oxycephalomyia, gen. nov., and life history strategy of O. styraci comb. nov. (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on Styrax japonicus (Styracaceae)
Makoto Tokuda, Machiko NOHARA, Junichi Yukawa, Shigeshi Usuba (2004) · Entomological Science
Tolerance and Acclimation of the Leaves of Nine Urban Tree Species to High Temperatures
Nao Okubo, Sumihiro Inoue, Hiroaki Ishii (2023) · Forests
Interaction of Insecticide and Media Moisture on Ambrosia Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Attacks on Selected Ornamental Trees
Steven D. Frank, Amanda Lynn Anderson, Christopher M. Ranger (2017) · Environmental Entomology

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