Species
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Ophiopogon planiscapus Nakai

Black mondo grass, Mondo grass, black mondo

Climate known 18 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

Ophiopogon planiscapus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is a small evergreen perennial growing to 20 cm (8 in) tall by 30 cm (12 in)wide. It grows from short rhizomes, and bears tufts of grasslike leaves, from which purple or white flowers emerge in racemes held on short stems above the leaves. It is native to Japan, where it grows on open and forested slopes.

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

About the genus · Ophiopogon

Ophiopogon (lilyturf) is a genus of evergreen perennial plants native to warm temperate to tropical East, Southeast, and South Asia. Despite their grasslike appearance, they are not closely related to the true grasses, the Poaceae. The name of the genus is derived from Greek ὄφις ophis, 'snake' and πώγων pogon, 'beard', most probably referring to its leaves and tufted growth. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ophiopogon”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Nakai
Native to
Japan
Wild records
712 in range· 702 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1650mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 229 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 1650 mm a year, wettest September at 229 mm, driest December at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.7 °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 Mondo planiscapum (Nakai) L.H.Bailey; Ophiopogon planiscapus f. leucanthus (Makino) Okuyama; Ophiopogon planiscapus var. leucanthus (Makino) Nakai; Ophiopogon wallichianus var. leucanthus Makino.

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 (1260 mm of 1650 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.8 °C against a yearly mean of 13.0 °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 1650 mm a year, wettest September at 229 mm, driest December at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1650 mm a year at the habitat, 1260 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 229 mm, driest December at 55 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1329 mm to 2612 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 -4.7 °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 -4.7 °C, the absolute minimum -8.5 °C, about 83 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.8 °C to 2.6 °C), warmest day 27.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.7 °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: 57 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 5 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1650 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 475 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.2 °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°frost31.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–34RH 57–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 475 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 °C5 / 2–86 / 2–99 / 6–1215 / 11–1719 / 16–2122 / 20–2426 / 23–2827 / 25–2924 / 21–2518 / 16–2013 / 10–168 / 5–11
Night °C-3 / -8–3-3 / -7–31 / -3–56 / 3–1011 / 9–1516 / 13–1820 / 17–2221 / 18–2418 / 15–2112 / 8–156 / 2–100 / -4–5
Rain mm60 / 39–14265 / 43–133116 / 80–203127 / 93–198143 / 113–228177 / 145–301201 / 153–304205 / 148–283229 / 188–322178 / 130–24794 / 65–18255 / 37–143
DLI17 / 15–2022 / 20–2527 / 25–3032 / 31–3534 / 32–3630 / 28–3431 / 28–3331 / 29–3424 / 22–2620 / 19–2216 / 15–1815 / 13–17
RH %57 / 54–6157 / 54–6158 / 56–6159 / 57–6162 / 59–6466 / 63–6968 / 65–7167 / 64–7065 / 63–6862 / 60–6560 / 57–6257 / 55–61

Each figure is the median across the 475 grid cells holding the 702 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 1111:6317 (34.425, 135.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °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 475 distinct grid cells holding the 702 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1111:6317 (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 34.50_135.625, lapse-corrected +161 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 425 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· introduced: Great Britain
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.591, 139.178 · in the densest population, 509 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 712 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 702 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 65 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 712 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ophiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapusOphiopogon planiscapus

Photographs: (c) Timur Kalininsky, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) naturewatchwidow, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ian Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) R.G, 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 Ophiopogon planiscapus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Advanced Bioinformatics Tools in the Pharmacokinetic Profiles of Natural and Synthetic Compounds with Anti-Diabetic Activity
Ana-Maria Udrea, Grațiela Grădișteanu Pîrcălăbioru, Anca Andreea Boboc, Catalina Mares (2021) · Biomolecules
Steroidal sapogenins of sixteen liliaceae plants.
Tameto Okanishi, Akira Akahori, Fumio Yasuda, Yasuyoshi Takeuchi (1975) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
SELECTION OF THE BEST BLACK MONDO (OPHIOPOGON PLANISCAPUS 'NIGRESCENS') CLONE IN TISSUE CULTURE CONDITIONS FOR MICROPROPAGATION
Esin Arı, Jeffrey Adelberg, Maria P. Delgado, Mark Kroggel (2015) · Acta Horticulturae
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
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Ophiopogon planiscapus Nakai
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

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 Ophiopogon 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 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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.