Species
+

Cinnamomum kotoense Kaneh. & Sasaki

cinnamon plant

Climate known 51 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.

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.

Family
Lauraceae
Described by
Kaneh. & Sasaki
Native to
Taiwan
Wild records
50 in range· 16 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2615mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 464 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–38DLI
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 summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2615 mm a year, wettest August at 464 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.1 °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.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May 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 (1951 mm of 2615 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.1 °C against a yearly mean of 24.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November 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 2615 mm a year, wettest August at 464 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2615 mm a year at the habitat, 1951 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 464 mm, driest December at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2248 mm to 3436 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: 21 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 38 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 18.1 °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 18.1 °C, the absolute minimum 14.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.3 °C to 20.6 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.1 °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: 62 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 22 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2615 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 12 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 21–38RH 62–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 12 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 °C22 / 20–2222 / 21–2324 / 22–2525 / 24–2727 / 27–2928 / 28–3029 / 28–3028 / 28–3028 / 27–2927 / 26–2825 / 23–2522 / 21–23
Night °C18 / 12–2119 / 13–2120 / 15–2223 / 18–2424 / 21–2625 / 23–2726 / 24–2726 / 24–2725 / 23–2724 / 21–2522 / 18–2419 / 14–22
Rain mm49 / 26–24793 / 30–206103 / 40–187129 / 58–187246 / 195–345412 / 315–485432 / 253–514464 / 317–556397 / 323–478158 / 73–35385 / 31–28247 / 26–216
DLI23 / 19–2425 / 23–2831 / 30–3436 / 33–3836 / 33–3735 / 33–3838 / 35–4035 / 31–3732 / 30–3429 / 28–3124 / 22–2621 / 18–23
RH %62 / 58–6362 / 59–6463 / 61–6464 / 62–6565 / 63–6766 / 64–7066 / 64–7067 / 65–7066 / 64–6863 / 61–6763 / 60–6562 / 58–63

Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 13 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 1360:6016 (21.975, 120.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.1 °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 12 distinct grid cells holding the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1360:6016 (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 22.00_120.625, lapse-corrected +74 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 98 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.
NativeTaiwan
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.1, 121.5 · in the densest population, 49 records (98% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 50 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 16 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 37 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 50 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoenseCinnamomum kotoense

Photographs: (c) Cheng-Te Hsu, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bella Lin, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Chemical and Cytotoxic Constituents from the Leaves of Cinnamomum kotoense
Ching‐Hsein Chen, Wen‐Li Lo, Yachen Liu, Chung‐Yi Chen (2006) · Journal of Natural Products
Antitubercular Constituents from the Stem Wood of Cinnamomum kotoense
Fu-Chi Chen, Chien‐Fang Peng, Ian‐Lih Tsai, Ih‐Sheng Chen (2005) · Journal of Natural Products
Isoobtusilactone A Sensitizes Human Hepatoma Hep G2 Cells to TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis via ROS and CHOP-Mediated Up-regulation of DR5
Chung‐Yi Chen, Shuenn‐Jiun Yiin, Jue‐Liang Hsu, Wei-Che Wang (2012) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antioxidants from the Leaves of Cinnamomum kotoense
Kuo-Chen Cheng, Man-Chun Hsueh, Hou-Chien Chang, Alan Yueh‐Luen Lee (2010) · Natural Product Communications
Chemical constituents from the fruits of Cinnamomum kotoense
Chung‐Yi Chen, Zi-Ling Hong (2011) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
Butanolides from the Stem of Cinnamomum Kotoense
Chung‐Yi Chen (2006) · Natural Product Communications
Enhancement of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell Osteogenesis and New Bone Formation in Rats by Obtusilactone A
Yi‐Hsiung Lin, Chung‐Yi Chen, Liang-Yin Chou, Chung‐Hwan Chen (2017) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences

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 Cinnamomum 3 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 nothing to reportcarried 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.