Species
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Elaeocarpus decipiens F.B.Forbes & Hemsl.

Common Elaeocarpus

Climate known 6 photographs
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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

Elaeocarpus decipiens, commonly known as Japanese blueberry tree, is a species of flowering tree in the family Elaeocarpaceae. It has red, brown, and green leaves that are typically egg-shaped, 5-petaled flowers ranging in color from cream to light pink, and small drupe fruit.

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

About the genus · Elaeocarpus

Elaeocarpus is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the western Indian Ocean, tropical and subtropical Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Plants in the genus are trees or shrubs with simple leaves, flowers with four or five petals, and usually blue fruit.

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

Family
Elaeocarpaceae
Described by
F.B.Forbes & Hemsl.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan +5
Wild records
1320 in range· 603 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2319mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 333 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–36DLI
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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2319 mm a year, wettest June at 333 mm, driest December at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.3 °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 Cerasus elliptica (Thunb.) Loisel.; Elaeocarpus angustifolius subsp. hayatae (Kanehira & Sasaki) Yang; Elaeocarpus angustifolius var. hayatae (Kaneh. & Sasaki) Chang; Elaeocarpus ellipticus (Thunb.) Makino; Elaeocarpus ellipticus (Thunb.) Nakai and 17 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 (1631 mm of 2319 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °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 2319 mm a year, wettest June at 333 mm, driest December at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2319 mm a year at the habitat, 1631 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 333 mm, driest December at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1577 mm to 3981 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: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 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 41).

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 1.3 °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 1.3 °C, the absolute minimum -4.1 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.2 °C to 16.0 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.3 °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: 59 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 15 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 9 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2319 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 624 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.5 °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°frost34.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 16–36RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 624 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 °C15 / 8–2016 / 9–2019 / 12–2222 / 16–2524 / 20–2727 / 22–2928 / 25–3128 / 26–3127 / 24–2924 / 20–2620 / 16–2417 / 11–20
Night °C9 / 2–1610 / 3–1612 / 6–1816 / 11–2020 / 15–2322 / 18–2524 / 20–2725 / 20–2722 / 19–2618 / 15–2414 / 9–2110 / 4–18
Rain mm75 / 42–213115 / 59–237170 / 81–250194 / 111–258262 / 161–374333 / 221–515261 / 162–484288 / 157–527293 / 125–537164 / 62–420104 / 44–29460 / 36–204
DLI17 / 14–2220 / 16–2426 / 20–3031 / 25–3433 / 28–3632 / 29–3536 / 32–4134 / 31–3829 / 26–3324 / 21–2819 / 16–2416 / 14–21
RH %60 / 54–6862 / 55–6963 / 56–6963 / 58–6964 / 62–6967 / 64–7167 / 63–7167 / 63–7065 / 62–7061 / 58–6960 / 56–6859 / 54–68

Each figure is the median across the 624 grid cells holding the 1297 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 1329:5871 (23.525, 113.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.5 °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 624 distinct grid cells holding the 1297 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1329:5871 (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 23.50_113.750, lapse-corrected -109 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 46 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.828, 121.527 · in the densest population, 605 records (46% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1320 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 603 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 230 km away. 17 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 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 1320 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Elaeocarpus decipiensElaeocarpus decipiensElaeocarpus decipiensElaeocarpus decipiensElaeocarpus decipiens

Photographs: 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, 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 Elaeocarpus decipiens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Mechanisms promoting tree species co‐existence: Experimental evidence with saplings of subtropical forest ecosystems of China
Anne C. Lang, Werner Härdtle, Martín Baruffol, Martin Böhnke (2012) · Journal of Vegetation Science
Photosynthesis and Related Physiological Parameters Differences Affected the Isoprene Emission Rate among 10 Typical Tree Species in Subtropical Metropolises
Junyao Lyu, Feng Xiong, Ningxiao Sun, Yiheng Li (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Ecological Restoration of Wetland Polluted by Heavy Metals in Xiangtan Manganese Mine Area
Lin Yang, Yunan Jiao, Meifang Zhao, Guangjun Wang (2021) · Processes
Effects of tree sapling diversity and nutrient addition on herb-layer invasibility in communities of subtropical species
Sabine Both, Teng Fang, Martín Baruffol, Bernhard Schmid (2012) · Open Journal of Ecology
First report of Meloidogyne enterolobii infecting Japanese blue berry tree ( Elaeocarpus decipiens ) in Florida, USA
Matthew R. Moore, J. A. Brito, S. Qiu, Cheryl G. Roberts (2020) · Journal of Nematology
In silico characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Elaeocarpus ganitrus based on ITS2 barcode sequence
Jyotsana Singh Kushwaha, A. B. Joshi (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
First Report of Coniella quercicola Causing Leaf Spot on Elaeocarpus decipiens in China
Zixuan Tang, Lijun Chen, Wanli Ma, Qin Xu (2023) · Plant Disease

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 Elaeocarpus 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 10 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried 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 2026-09-19; 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 55 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.