Pittosporum tobira (Murray) Aiton fil.
Australian laurel, Australian-laurel, Japanese Cheesewood, Japanese cheesewood (EN)
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
Pittosporum tobira is a species of sweet-smelling flowering plant in the pittosporum family Pittosporaceae known by several common names, including Australian laurel, Japanese pittosporum, mock orange and Japanese cheesewood. It is native to Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea, but it is used throughout the world as an ornamental plant in landscaping and as cut foliage.
Text from Wikipedia, “Pittosporum tobira”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Pittosporum
Pittosporum is a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. Plants in the genus Pittosporum are shrubs or trees with leaves arranged alternately along the stems. The flowers are arranged singly or in cymes, with white to yellow petals fused at the base forming a short tube, with stamens that are free from each other. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Pittosporum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Euonymus tobira Thunb.; Pittosporum chinense Donn; Pittosporum japonicum C.Presl; Pittosporum tobira f. macrophylla (Nakai) Sugim.; Pittosporum tobira var. chinense S.Kobay. and 2 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 (1569 mm of 2113 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.4 °C against a yearly mean of 19.1 °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 2113 mm a year, wettest June at 273 mm, driest December at 68 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
2113 mm a year at the habitat, 1569 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 273 mm, driest December at 68 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1492 mm to 3303 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 36 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 39).
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 0.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -2.5 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.9 °C to 15.3 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.5 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 66% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 8–18 | 13 / 8–19 | 16 / 11–21 | 20 / 16–24 | 23 / 19–27 | 26 / 22–29 | 29 / 25–30 | 29 / 27–30 | 27 / 25–28 | 24 / 20–26 | 19 / 15–23 | 15 / 10–20 |
| Night °C | 8 / 1–15 | 9 / 1–16 | 11 / 4–17 | 15 / 9–20 | 18 / 14–23 | 22 / 18–25 | 25 / 22–27 | 25 / 24–27 | 23 / 20–25 | 19 / 14–23 | 15 / 9–20 | 11 / 4–17 |
| Rain mm | 77 / 46–232 | 127 / 58–255 | 162 / 107–248 | 167 / 113–222 | 232 / 134–291 | 273 / 167–361 | 215 / 154–302 | 246 / 131–314 | 254 / 182–476 | 182 / 81–376 | 110 / 60–299 | 68 / 45–239 |
| DLI | 17 / 14–19 | 21 / 18–23 | 26 / 24–28 | 31 / 29–34 | 33 / 31–36 | 33 / 29–35 | 36 / 31–39 | 35 / 32–36 | 28 / 24–32 | 24 / 19–27 | 18 / 16–21 | 15 / 14–18 |
| RH % | 57 / 53–64 | 57 / 54–65 | 59 / 56–66 | 62 / 58–66 | 64 / 60–67 | 66 / 63–69 | 66 / 64–70 | 66 / 64–68 | 64 / 62–66 | 61 / 58–64 | 59 / 56–64 | 57 / 54–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 146 grid cells holding the 233 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 1167:6229 (31.625, 131.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °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 146 distinct grid cells holding the 233 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1167:6229 (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 31.50_131.250, lapse-corrected -101 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 36 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Katrin Simon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0.
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Pittosporum tobira, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Nageia nagi Asian bayberry
Rosa bracteata Macartney's rose
Elaeocarpus decipiens Common Elaeocarpus
Gardenia jasminoides Cape Jasmine
Magnolia compressa Compressed michelia
Syzygium buxifolium boxleaf eugeniaOther Pittosporum 5 in the reference
Pittosporum crassifolium Karo
Pittosporum eugenioides Lemonwood
Pittosporum pentandrum Taiwanese cheesewood
Pittosporum tenuifolium Black Matipo
Pittosporum undulatum Australian cheesewood 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons 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 did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








