Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J.Presl
Camphor tree, Camphortree, Japanese camphor, Japanese camphor
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
Camphora officinarum is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and India. It is known by various names, most notably the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel.
Text from Wikipedia, “Camphora officinarum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Cinnamomum
Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark and are best known as the source of the spice cinnamon. The genus contains about 227 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania/Australasia. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Cinnamomum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Camphora camelliifolia Lukman.; Camphora camphora (L.) H.Karst.; Camphora decaisnei Lukman.; Camphora decandollei Lukman.; Camphora hahnemannii Lukman. and 45 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 (1780 mm of 2332 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.7 °C against a yearly mean of 22.1 °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 2332 mm a year, wettest August at 354 mm, driest December at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
2332 mm a year at the habitat, 1780 mm of it April to September. Wettest month August at 354 mm, driest December at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1527 mm to 3461 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: 17 to 36 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 36 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).
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 9.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.7 °C, the absolute minimum 4.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.4 °C to 15.3 °C), warmest day 29.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.7 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 66% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 8–21 | 18 / 9–22 | 21 / 12–25 | 24 / 17–27 | 26 / 21–29 | 28 / 24–30 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–31 | 28 / 25–29 | 25 / 20–28 | 22 / 16–26 | 19 / 11–22 |
| Night °C | 12 / 0–15 | 13 / 1–16 | 15 / 4–18 | 19 / 9–21 | 21 / 14–23 | 23 / 18–25 | 24 / 22–26 | 24 / 22–26 | 23 / 19–25 | 21 / 14–23 | 18 / 8–20 | 14 / 3–17 |
| Rain mm | 55 / 27–141 | 95 / 45–210 | 127 / 54–207 | 154 / 90–215 | 265 / 150–344 | 353 / 187–465 | 331 / 168–499 | 354 / 158–545 | 323 / 195–522 | 138 / 37–374 | 84 / 24–230 | 53 / 24–153 |
| DLI | 18 / 15–24 | 22 / 18–27 | 27 / 24–32 | 31 / 28–35 | 32 / 30–35 | 33 / 29–34 | 36 / 31–38 | 33 / 31–35 | 30 / 24–32 | 25 / 19–30 | 20 / 16–25 | 17 / 14–22 |
| RH % | 63 / 54–67 | 63 / 55–68 | 64 / 57–68 | 64 / 59–67 | 64 / 62–68 | 65 / 63–68 | 65 / 64–68 | 66 / 64–68 | 65 / 63–69 | 64 / 60–67 | 63 / 58–67 | 62 / 56–66 |
Each figure is the median across the 98 grid cells holding the 132 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 1299:6033 (25.025, 121.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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 98 distinct grid cells holding the 132 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:6033 (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 25.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +203 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 304 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: Dave Richardson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Richard Fuller, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Nonbinary-Naturalist, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.
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 Cinnamomum camphora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Colocasia esculenta Arum-Lily Potatoes
Heptapleurum heptaphyllum Common Schefflera
Fraxinus griffithii Evergreen tropical ash
Stephania longa Long Stephania
Alocasia odora Asian TaroOther Cinnamomum 3 in the reference
Cinnamomum burmanni Batavia cinnamon
Cinnamomum kotoense cinnamon plant
Cinnamomum verum Ceylon Cinnamon History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
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