Species
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Wisteria floribunda (Willd.) DC.

Common Wisteria, Japanese Wisteria, Japanese Wisteria, Japanese Wisteria, Japanese wistaria

Climate known 52 photographs Temperate garden plant
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

Wisteria floribunda, common name Japanese wisteria , is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to Japan. Growing to 9 m (30 ft), Wisteria floribunda is a woody, deciduous twining climber. It was first brought from Japan to the United States in the 1830s. It is a common subject for bonsai, along with Wisteria sinensis.

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

About the genus · Wisteria

Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae). The genus includes four species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north of Iran. They were later introduced to England, France, Germany and various other countries in Europe. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Wisteria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Willd.) DC.
Native to
Japan
Wild records
1057 in range· 910 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1752mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 232 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
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Wisteria, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1752 mm a year, wettest September at 232 mm, driest December at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.5 °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 Dolichos japonicus Spreng.; Glycine floribunda Willd.; Glycine macrobotrys (Siebold ex Lemoine) Jacob-Makoy; Glycine multijuga (Van Houtte) Clémenc.; Glycine multijuga var. alba de Vos and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Wisteria, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

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 (1319 mm of 1752 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.1 °C against a yearly mean of 13.2 °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 1752 mm a year, wettest September at 232 mm, driest December at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1752 mm a year at the habitat, 1319 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 232 mm, driest December at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1376 mm to 2700 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 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 -5.5 °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 -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -10.7 °C, about 82 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.6 °C to 2.4 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °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: 58 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 -3 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1752 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 829 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost29.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–35RH 58–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 829 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 / -0–85 / 0–99 / 4–1215 / 11–1720 / 16–2223 / 20–2526 / 23–2828 / 25–3024 / 21–2618 / 15–2113 / 9–168 / 3–11
Night °C-3 / -9–2-3 / -8–31 / -4–56 / 2–1011 / 8–1516 / 13–1920 / 17–2221 / 18–2417 / 14–2111 / 7–155 / 1–10-0 / -5–5
Rain mm66 / 41–23178 / 46–173126 / 82–191129 / 95–187154 / 116–222200 / 150–298229 / 155–354200 / 134–302232 / 179–317175 / 116–230103 / 67–23860 / 37–248
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 20–2427 / 25–2933 / 31–3435 / 32–3632 / 28–3531 / 28–3432 / 29–3425 / 22–2721 / 19–2316 / 15–1815 / 12–17
RH %59 / 54–6558 / 54–6459 / 56–6259 / 57–6161 / 59–6365 / 62–6867 / 64–7066 / 63–6965 / 62–6862 / 59–6560 / 57–6459 / 55–65

Each figure is the median across the 829 grid cells holding the 1029 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 1122:6274 (33.875, 133.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.1 °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 829 distinct grid cells holding the 1029 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1122:6274 (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 34.00_133.750, lapse-corrected +351 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 711 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.
NativeJapan· introduced: Korea, Ogasawara-shoto, Illinois, Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Tennessee
Kew's description“liana” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.72, 139.191 · in the densest population, 521 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1057 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 910 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 447 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 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 of the 1057 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Wisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribundaWisteria floribunda

Photographs: (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Pel is a cationic exopolysaccharide that cross-links extracellular DNA in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm matrix
Laura K. Jennings, Kelly M. Storek, Hannah E. Ledvina, Charlène Coulon (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-labelled nets surround parvalbumin-containing neurons
Wolfgang Härtig, K Brauer, Gert Brückner (1992) · Neuroreport
Activity‐dependent formation and functions of chondroitin sulfate‐rich extracellular matrix of perineuronal nets
Alexander Dityatev, Gert Brückner, Alexander Dityatev, Jens Grosche (2007) · Developmental Neurobiology
Postnatal development of perineuronal nets in wild-type mice and in a mutant deficient in tenascin-R
Gert Br�ckner, Jens Grosche, Sandra Schmidt, Wolfgang H�rtig (2000) · The Journal of Comparative Neurology
Mice Deficient for Tenascin-R Display Alterations of the Extracellular Matrix and Decreased Axonal Conduction Velocities in the CNS
Philipp Weber, Udo Bartsch, Matthew N. Rasband, R Czaniera (1999) · Journal of Neuroscience
Distribution and synthesis of extracellular matrix proteoglycans, hyaluronan, link proteins and tenascin‐R in the rat spinal cord
Clare Galtrey, Jessica C. F. Kwok, Daniela Carulli, Kate Rhodes (2008) · European Journal of Neuroscience
A novel serum marker, glycosylated Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein (WFA+-M2BP), for assessing liver fibrosis
Takeo Toshima, Ken Shirabe, Toru Ikegami, Tomoharu Yoshizumi (2014) · Journal of Gastroenterology
The thalamic reticular nucleus in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: role of parvalbumin-expressing neuron networks and oxidative stress
Pascal Steullet, J-H Cabungcal, Sadia Bukhari, Magdalena Ardelt (2017) · Molecular Psychiatry
In vitro modeling of perineuronal nets: hyaluronan synthase and link protein are necessary for their formation and integrity
Jessica C. F. Kwok, Daniela Carulli, James W. Fawcett (2010) · Journal of Neurochemistry
Association between Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein and the fibrosis stage of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Masanori Abe, Teruki Miyake, Atsushi Kuno, Yasuharu Imai (2014) · Journal of Gastroenterology

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.

Other Wisteria 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 141 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.