Species
+

Mahonia oiwakensis Hayata

Berberidaceae

Climate known 11 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

Berberis oiwakensis is a species of plant in the barberry family, Berberidaceae. It is native to Taiwan, China and Myanmar, where it occurs at elevations of 600 to 3800 m. It has recently been found naturalized in South Africa.

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

About the genus · Mahonia

Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.

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

Family
Berberidaceae
Described by
Hayata
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Tibet +2
Wild records
385 in range· 100 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2273mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 357 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–34DLI
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, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2273 mm a year, wettest June at 357 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.7 °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 Berberis caelicolor (S.Y.Bao) Laferr.; Berberis discolorifolia (Ahrendt) Laferr.; Berberis lomariifolia (Takeda) Laferr.; Berberis lomariifolia subsp. estylis (C.Y.Wu ex S.Y.Bao) Laferrière; Berberis lomariifolia var. estylis (C.Y.Wu) Laferr. and 14 more.

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 (1615 mm of 2273 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.4 °C against a yearly mean of 14.3 °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 2273 mm a year, wettest June at 357 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2273 mm a year at the habitat, 1615 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 357 mm, driest December at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 853 mm to 4167 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: 19 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 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 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 -2.7 °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 -2.7 °C, the absolute minimum -9.1 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.6 °C to 7.2 °C), warmest day 21.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.7 °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.

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 11 °C in Jan to 22 °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. 2273 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 88 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost23.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 19–34RH 62–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 88 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 °C11 / 6–1713 / 8–1916 / 11–2219 / 14–2521 / 16–2722 / 17–2822 / 18–2822 / 18–2820 / 17–2618 / 15–2415 / 12–2112 / 8–18
Night °C3 / -3–74 / -1–97 / 2–1210 / 6–1513 / 9–1815 / 11–2015 / 11–2115 / 11–2114 / 10–1911 / 8–168 / 3–124 / -1–9
Rain mm47 / 13–10886 / 13–185124 / 19–202166 / 26–286268 / 75–526357 / 132–663339 / 181–676355 / 149–744296 / 105–551134 / 58–30260 / 20–13541 / 8–101
DLI21 / 14–2723 / 17–3228 / 23–3731 / 27–4031 / 28–3730 / 26–3434 / 27–3732 / 28–3428 / 24–3024 / 16–2821 / 15–2519 / 14–24
RH %62 / 55–6764 / 52–6863 / 51–6763 / 53–6765 / 56–6866 / 62–7066 / 63–7167 / 64–7167 / 63–7166 / 61–6963 / 59–6762 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 88 grid cells holding the 138 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 1330:6016 (23.475, 120.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.5 °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 88 distinct grid cells holding the 138 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1330:6016 (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 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected +1440 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2127 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, Hainan, Tibet, Taiwan, Myanmar· introduced: China Southeast
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.562, 120.96 · in the densest population, 325 records (84% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 385 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 100 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 163 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 247 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 385 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensisMahonia oiwakensis

Photographs: lotusmorning, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; William Harland, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6); Heidi Meudt, 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 Mahonia oiwakensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of ethanol root extract of Mahonia oiwakensis in mice
Jung Chao, Tsung-Chun Lu, Jiunn‐Wang Liao, Tai-Hung Huang (2009) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Antioxidant, Analgesic, Anti-Inflammatory, and Hepatoprotective Effects of the Ethanol Extract of Mahonia oiwakensis Stem
Jung Chao, Jiunn‐Wang Liao, Wen‐Huang Peng, Meng‐Shiou Lee (2013) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
The in vitro and in vivo apoptotic effects of Mahonia oiwakensis on human lung cancer cells
Bing-Sang Wong, Yen-Chang Hsiao, Ta-Wei Lin, Kuo-Shuen Chen (2009) · Chemico-Biological Interactions
Responses of photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence during light induction in different seedling ages of Mahonia oiwakensis
Chung-I Chen, Kuan‐Hung Lin, Tzu-Chao Lin, Mengyuan Huang (2023) · Botanical studies
Secondary Metabolites from the Stems of Mahonia oiwakensis
Lin Yuan, C. L. Kao, Shu-Chi Huang, C. T. Chen (2017) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
The Effect of Dark Septate Endophytic Fungi on Mahonia oiwakensis
Lei‐Chen Lin, Yin-Ling Tan, Wan-Rou Lin, Kuo-Lung Ku (2021) · Plants
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Mahonia 5 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 search API
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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 11 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
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 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)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.