Species
+

Fatsia japonica (Thunb.) Decne. & Planch.

Fatsia, Glossy-leaf paper plant, Japanese aralia, Japanese fatsia

Climate known 48 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

Fatsia japonica, also fatsi, paperplant, false castor oil plant, or Japanese aralia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to southern Japan and southern Korea.

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

About the genus · Fatsia

Fatsia is a small genus of three species of evergreen shrubs in the family Araliaceae native to Korea, southern Japan and Taiwan. They typically have stout, sparsely branched stems bearing spirally-arranged, large leathery, palmately lobed leaves 20–50 cm in width, on a petiole up to 50 cm long, and small creamy-white flowers in dense terminal compound umbels in late autumn or early winter, followed by small black fruit. The genus was formerly classified within a broader interpretation of the related genus Aralia.

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

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
(Thunb.) Decne. & Planch.
Native to
Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto
Wild records
752 in range· 388 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1677mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 216 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–34DLI
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 October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1677 mm a year, wettest July at 216 mm, driest December at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.0 °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 Aralia brownii André; Aralia japonica Thunb.; Aralia sieboldii K.Koch; Aralia sieboldii subsp. moseri J.R.Duncan & V.C.Davies; Aralia sieboldii var. variegata J.Dix and 5 more.

Cultivation

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 (1278 mm of 1677 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.8 °C against a yearly mean of 15.5 °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 1677 mm a year, wettest July at 216 mm, driest December at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1677 mm a year at the habitat, 1278 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 216 mm, driest December at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1399 mm to 2594 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 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 37).

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 -3.0 °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 -3.0 °C, the absolute minimum -7.4 °C, about 36 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.1 °C to 5.6 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.0 °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: 55 to 68% 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 8 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1677 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 409 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °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°frost34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–34RH 55–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 409 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 °C8 / 5–109 / 6–1112 / 10–1417 / 14–1821 / 18–2224 / 21–2527 / 25–2928 / 26–3025 / 24–2720 / 19–2215 / 14–1711 / 8–13
Night °C2 / -2–62 / -2–65 / 2–810 / 7–1215 / 12–1619 / 17–2022 / 21–2424 / 22–2521 / 18–2215 / 12–189 / 6–135 / 1–8
Rain mm60 / 39–11970 / 49–134122 / 89–198134 / 109–220153 / 124–244209 / 159–375216 / 147–349185 / 131–308212 / 175–299169 / 67–22293 / 55–15254 / 31–118
DLI17 / 14–1822 / 20–2326 / 25–2933 / 31–3534 / 32–3732 / 28–3532 / 29–3533 / 30–3526 / 23–2822 / 19–2517 / 16–1915 / 14–17
RH %55 / 53–6056 / 53–6057 / 56–6059 / 57–6262 / 60–6566 / 63–6968 / 65–7266 / 63–6964 / 62–6660 / 57–6358 / 55–6156 / 54–60

Each figure is the median across the 409 grid cells holding the 721 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 1102:6293 (34.875, 134.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °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 409 distinct grid cells holding the 721 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1102:6293 (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 35.00_134.375, lapse-corrected -214 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 107 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, Korea, Nansei-shoto· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, China Southeast, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Arkansas, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.607, 139.578 · in the densest population, 404 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 752 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 388 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 849 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 31 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 752 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Fatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonicaFatsia japonica

Photographs: (c) florawhite, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Timur Kalininsky, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Corli du Toit Smith, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Colin Meurk, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) W Rao, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Measurements of leaf water content using terahertz radiation
Sillas Hadjiloucas, L.S. Karatzas, John W. Bowen (1999) · IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Efficiency of Volatile Formaldehyde Removal by Indoor Plants: Contribution of Aerial Plant Parts versus the Root Zone
Kwang J. Kim, Mi Jung Kil, Jeong Seob Song, Eun Ha Yoo (2008) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PHOTOSYNTHETIC CAPACITY AND LEAF STRUCTURE IN SEVERAL SHADE PLANTS
J. L. Araus, Leonor Alegre, Luís Tapia, R. Calafell (1986) · American Journal of Botany
Fatsia Japonica-Derived Hierarchical Porous Carbon for Supercapacitors With High Energy Density and Long Cycle Life
Huiling Li, Lihua Cao, Feng Wang, Gaigai Duan (2020) · Frontiers in Chemistry
Triterpenoid saponins from Fatsia japonica
Tadashi Aoki, Yumiko Tanio, Takayuki Suga (1976) · Phytochemistry
Relationships between Photosynthetic Capacity and Leaf Structure in Several Shade Plants
J. L. Araus, Leonor Alegre, Luís Tapia, R. Calafell (1986) · American Journal of Botany
Triterpenoid saponins from the flower buds of Fatsia japonica
Tadashi Aoki, Takayuki Suga (1978) · Phytochemistry
The major allergen of Dendropanax trifidus Makino
Keiko Oka, Fumio Saio, Ta ashi Yasuhara, Akiko Sugimoo (1997) · Contact Dermatitis

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.

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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.