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Symplocos coreana; photograph (c) りなべる, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) りなべる, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-05-21

Symplocos coreana (H.Lév.) Ohwi

Korean sweetleaf

Symplocaceae · Japan, Korea

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Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY)Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY)Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY)Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY)Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY)Symplocos coreana, photograph (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) 7 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-10.0°C
Record low -15.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,326mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–35DLI
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 March and May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,614 mm of 2,174 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.9 °C against a yearly mean of 11.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.

Rain

2,174 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,614 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month July at 310 mm, driest month December at 74 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,417 mm to 3,308 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,326 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,174 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: 16 to 35 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 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -10.0 °C, the absolute minimum -15.0 °C, 4,256 frost nights in 44 years, 96.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -11.9 °C to 0.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.5 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.0 °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: 58 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 -540 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Symplocos coreana through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -4.9 °C; 2,174 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost34.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-15.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–35RH 58–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 187 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 °C3 / -1–64 / 0–78 / 4–1114 / 11–1619 / 16–2122 / 20–2425 / 23–2727 / 24–2923 / 20–2517 / 14–2012 / 8–146 / 2–9
Night °C-5 / -12–1-5 / -11–1-1 / -6–35 / 1–810 / 6–1314 / 11–1719 / 15–2119 / 16–2216 / 13–199 / 6–133 / -1–8-2 / -7–3
Rain mm87 / 56–255108 / 62–183170 / 100–235167 / 94–256209 / 127–322276 / 167–451310 / 189–460202 / 135–357278 / 200–396169 / 121–230124 / 78–21474 / 49–240
DLI17 / 15–2022 / 20–2528 / 26–3133 / 32–3635 / 33–3732 / 29–3531 / 30–3433 / 31–3426 / 24–2722 / 21–2417 / 16–1916 / 14–18
RH %61 / 57–6660 / 57–6459 / 57–6158 / 56–6060 / 58–6265 / 62–6767 / 64–7066 / 62–6865 / 63–6762 / 60–6461 / 59–6361 / 57–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 187 grid cells holding the 208 in-range records, 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 1066:6365 (36.675, 138.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.2 °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 187 distinct grid cells holding 208 of the 208 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1066:6365 (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 36.50_138.125, lapse-corrected -540 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 335 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.
NativeJapan, 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 marker35.001, 134.017 · in the densest population, 771 records (74% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1046 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 208 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1012 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 838 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 1046 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Symplocos coreana, photograph 1did not loadSymplocos coreana, photograph 2did not loadSymplocos coreana, photograph 3did not loadSymplocos coreana, photograph 4did not loadSymplocos coreana, photograph 5did not loadSymplocos coreana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Clethra barbinervis Clethra barbinervis Japanese Clethra Photo: CC BY, Timur KalininskyCarex morrowii Carex morrowii Japanese sedge Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoTsuga sieboldii Tsuga sieboldii Southern Japanese hemlock Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Acer sieboldianum Acer sieboldianum Siebold's maple Photo: CC0, author not statedLindera triloba Lindera triloba Japanese spicebush Photo: CC BY, りなべるRosa onoei Rosa onoei Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁

Other Symplocos 12 in the reference

Symplocos cochinchinensis Symplocos cochinchinensis Buff hazelwood Photo: CC BY, Licheng ShihSymplocos glauca Symplocos glauca Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 許文俊Symplocos lancifolia Symplocos lancifolia Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengSymplocos lucida Symplocos lucida Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Symplocos paniculata Symplocos paniculata Sapphire-berry Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang Wang Symplocos quindiuensis Symplocaceae Symplocos sawafutagi Symplocos sawafutagi Asian sweetleaf Photo: CC0, author not statedSymplocos stellaris Symplocos stellaris Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Symplocos sumuntia Symplocos sumuntia Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, 葉淑蓮Symplocos theiformis Symplocos theiformis Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, julianazuluaga-carreroSymplocos tinctoria Symplocos tinctoria Sweetleaf Photo: CC0, author not statedSymplocos uniflora Symplocos uniflora Symplocaceae Photo: CC BY, Gastón Repetto

Names & registers

Also known as Cotoneaster coreanus; Palura argutidens; Palura coreana; Palura papyracea; Symplocos argutidens and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Symplocaceae
Described by
(H.Lév.) Ohwi
Native to
Japan, Korea
Wild records
1046 in range · 1012 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; 34 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (18 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 16 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 36.50_138.125, lapse-corrected -540 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 55 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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