Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Syringa villosa; photograph (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-17

Syringa villosa Vahl

Villous lilac; Late lilac; Japanese lilac

Oleaceae · Primorye, Inner Mongolia +3

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Syringa villosa, photograph (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY)Syringa villosa, photograph (c) Yi CHEN, some rights reserved (CC BY)Syringa villosa, photograph (c) Yi CHEN, some rights reserved (CC BY)Syringa villosa, photograph (c) Yi CHEN, some rights reserved (CC BY)Syringa villosa, photograph Violetta Dzizyurova, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSyringa villosa, photograph Violetta Dzizyurova, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 23 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-21.9°C
Record low -31.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
994mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–36DLI
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

Syringa villosa, the villous lilac or late lilac is a shrub native to Korea, the southern part of the Russian Far East (Primorye) and northern China. There are two subspecies currently recognized (April 2014); these are regarded as separate species in Flora of China. Combining the ranges for the two taxa yields a range within China of Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Syringa villosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Syringa

Syringa is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family known colloquially as lilacs. They are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (780 mm of 1,040 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.9 °C against a yearly mean of 6.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,040 mm in the median year at the habitat, 780 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 225 mm, driest month January at 17 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 715 mm to 2,026 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 994 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,040 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: 14 to 36 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 12, 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 -21.9 °C, the absolute minimum -31.4 °C, 7,034 frost nights in 44 years, 159.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -16.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -23.8 °C to -10.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -21.9 °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: 54 to 69% 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 +41 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 Syringa villosa through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -16.1 °C; 1,040 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.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost30.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-31.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 14–36RH 54–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 152 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 °C-6 / -11–0-3 / -7–23 / 0–711 / 8–1417 / 13–1920 / 17–2323 / 21–2523 / 22–2619 / 17–2212 / 9–163 / 0–9-4 / -8–2
Night °C-16 / -24–-10-13 / -20–-8-6 / -12–-31 / -2–47 / 4–912 / 10–1517 / 14–1917 / 14–1911 / 7–154 / -1–7-4 / -10–0-12 / -21–-6
Rain mm17 / 9–5319 / 11–5539 / 20–8258 / 39–10394 / 68–151139 / 94–200225 / 139–467188 / 131–446134 / 83–30762 / 35–10641 / 21–8824 / 12–40
DLI17 / 15–1923 / 21–2429 / 28–3134 / 33–3636 / 34–3735 / 32–3728 / 26–3228 / 26–3126 / 25–2823 / 21–2416 / 14–1814 / 12–17
RH %57 / 52–6255 / 52–5955 / 51–5654 / 51–5757 / 54–6262 / 59–6969 / 63–7267 / 62–6962 / 58–6457 / 54–5956 / 52–5857 / 52–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 152 grid cells holding the 206 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 998:6100 (40.075, 125.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -31.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -21.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.8 °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 152 distinct grid cells holding 206 of the 206 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 998:6100 (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 40.00_125.000, lapse-corrected +41 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 291 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.
NativePrimorye, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Korea · introduced: Baltic States · 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 marker37.54, 128.516 · in the densest population, 150 records (44% 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 344 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 206 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 145 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 678 km away. 53 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 138 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 344 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Syringa villosa, photograph 1did not loadSyringa villosa, photograph 2did not loadSyringa villosa, photograph 3did not loadSyringa villosa, photograph 4did not loadSyringa villosa, photograph 5did not loadSyringa villosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Yi CHEN, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); Violetta Dzizyurova, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Acer barbinerve Acer barbinerve Bearded maple Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaSyringa reticulata Syringa reticulata Japanese tree lilac Photo: CC BY-SA, Loopy30 Hesperochloa extremiorientalis Poaceae Clematis fusca Clematis fusca Stanavoi clematis Photo: CC BY, Tatyana PetrenkoLilium distichum Lilium distichum Manchurian turk’s-cap lily Photo: CC BY, Tatyana PetrenkoBerberis amurensis Berberis amurensis Amur barberry Photo: CC BY, Violetta Dzizyurova

Other Syringa 11 in the reference

Syringa emodi Syringa emodi Himalayan Lilac Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoySyringa josikaea Syringa josikaea Hungarian lilac Photo: CC BY, Ксения ВолянскаяSyringa komarowii Syringa komarowii Nodding Lilac Photo: CC BY, Perry Gunnar LarsenSyringa oblata Syringa oblata Oleaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarSyringa persica Syringa persica Persian lilac Photo: CC BY-SA, zahoor qari Syringa pinetorum Oleaceae Syringa pinnatifolia Syringa pinnatifolia Oleaceae Photo: CC BY, Collin Knopp-SchwynSyringa pubescens Syringa pubescens Daphne lilac Photo: CC BY, Jane CharlenSyringa reticulata Syringa reticulata Japanese tree lilac Photo: CC BY-SA, Loopy30Syringa tomentella Syringa tomentella Oleaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Meneerke bloemSyringa vulgaris Syringa vulgaris Common lilac Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Syringa villosa var. rosea. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Oleaceae
Described by
Vahl
Native to
Primorye, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria +2
Wild records
344 in range · 145 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; 71 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (70 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 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 40.00_125.000, lapse-corrected +41 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 2026-10-22
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 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…