Species
+

Calycanthus occidentalis Hook. & Arn.

California spicebush, California sweetshrub, California sweetshrub, California-allspice

Climate known 39 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

Calycanthus occidentalis, commonly called spice bush or western sweetshrub, is a species of flowering shrub in the family Calycanthaceae that is native to California. It grows along streams and moist canyons in the foothills of mountains.

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

About the genus · Calycanthus

Calycanthus, called sweetshrub, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Calycanthaceae. The genus includes two to four species depending on taxonomic interpretation; three are accepted by most 21st century sources.

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

Family
Calycanthaceae
Described by
Hook. & Arn.
Native to
California
Wild records
1380 in range· 255 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1110mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jan 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–52DLI
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 winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1110 mm a year, wettest January at 211 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.6 °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 Butneria occidentalis (Hook. & Arn.) Greene; Calycanthus macrophyllus K.Koch.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (901 mm of 1110 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.1 °C against a yearly mean of 14.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

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 1110 mm a year, wettest January at 211 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1110 mm a year at the habitat, 901 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 211 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 674 mm to 1774 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: 13 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 52 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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 -2.6 °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 -2.6 °C, the absolute minimum -7.2 °C, about 22 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.4 °C to 4.8 °C), warmest day 31.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.6 °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: 46 to 59% 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 12 °C in Dec to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from 3 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1110 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 445 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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°frost38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 13–52RH 46–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 445 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 °C13 / 8–1414 / 9–1616 / 11–1819 / 14–2224 / 18–2728 / 22–3232 / 25–3531 / 25–3529 / 23–3123 / 18–2516 / 12–1812 / 8–14
Night °C3 / -1–54 / -1–65 / 0–77 / 2–910 / 6–1213 / 10–1615 / 13–1915 / 13–1913 / 11–1610 / 7–126 / 2–83 / -1–5
Rain mm211 / 133–313191 / 117–274156 / 95–24280 / 44–13242 / 22–7511 / 5–271 / 0–73 / 2–712 / 6–2660 / 36–97134 / 82–229209 / 126–340
DLI14 / 13–1820 / 19–2330 / 28–3339 / 38–4247 / 45–4852 / 51–5352 / 51–5347 / 45–4838 / 37–4027 / 25–2917 / 15–2013 / 11–16
RH %59 / 56–6458 / 57–6358 / 55–6155 / 52–5952 / 48–5749 / 44–5546 / 41–5646 / 41–5747 / 43–5751 / 48–5756 / 53–6058 / 55–63

Each figure is the median across the 445 grid cells holding the 1327 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 1030:1148 (38.475, -122.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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 445 distinct grid cells holding the 1327 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1030:1148 (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 38.50_-122.500, lapse-corrected +164 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 430 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.
NativeCalifornia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.624, -122.555 · in the densest population, 1031 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1380 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 255 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 27 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 53 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 1380 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Calycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalisCalycanthus occidentalis

Photographs: (c) 100460587416170889624, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Amelia Tauber, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ryan Donnelly, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Calycanthus occidentalis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

THE POLLINATION OF CALYCANTHUS OCCIDENTALIS
Verne Grant (1950) · American Journal of Botany
The Pollination of Calycanthus occidentalis
Verne Grant (1950) · American Journal of Botany
Ontogeny of the vegetative and floral apex of Calycanthus occidentalis
Nancy G. Dengler (1972) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Flavonoid Chemistry and the Phylogenetic Relationships of the Idiospermaceae
Robert W. Sterner, David A. Young (1980) · Systematic Botany
Untersuchungen über die Biosynthese der Cyclite, VI. Die Bildung von Scyllit inCalycanthus occidentalis
R. Scholda, G. Billek, O. Hoffmann‐Ostenhof (1964) · Hoppe-Seyler´s Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie
PCR‐based identification of Erysiphe pulchra and Phyllactinia guttata from Cornus florida using ITS‐specific primers
Margaret T. Mmbaga, Ned B. Klopfenstein, Mee‐Sook Kim, N. C. Mmbaga (2004) · Forest Pathology
Imitation of fermenting fruits in beetle-pollinated Calycanthus occidentalis (Calycanthaceae)
Gerhard Gottsberger, Brigitte Gottsberger, Ilse Silberbauer-Gottsberger, Vesna Stanojlović (2020) · Flora
THE VOLATILE OIL OF CALYCANTHUS OCCIDENTALIS
Charles C. Scalione (1916) · Journal of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry

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 Calycanthus 1 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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.