Species
+

Stephania japonica (Thunb.) Miers

Snake vine, Snake vine, ivyweed, kohihi, paahuauta, tafifi, kohihi, takahihi

Climate known 39 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
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

Stephania japonica, known as snake vine, is a vine often seen in sheltered areas near the sea.

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

About the genus · Stephania

Stephania is a genus of flowering plants in the family Menispermaceae. It includes 70 species native to tropical and southern Africa, eastern and southern Asia, Australia, and the tropical Pacific Islands. They are herbaceous perennial vines, growing to around four metres tall, with a large tuber. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Menispermaceae
Described by
(Thunb.) Miers
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +36
Wild records
1911 in range· 1407 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1179mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 150 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Stephania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1179 mm a year, wettest February at 150 mm, driest September at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.6 °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 Clypea consummata Miers; Clypea effusa Miers; Clypea subovata Miers; Cocculus japonicus (Thunb.) DC.; Menispermum japonicum Thunb. and 3 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Stephania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (914 mm of 1179 mm) takes 8 months, November to June. Mean temperature moves 8.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to December.

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 1179 mm a year, wettest February at 150 mm, driest September at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1179 mm a year at the habitat, 914 mm of it November to June. Wettest month February at 150 mm, driest September at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 865 mm to 2482 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 10.6 °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 10.6 °C, the absolute minimum 8.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.9 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 26.1 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.6 °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: 56 to 63% 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 17 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1179 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1217 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°29.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 19–41RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1217 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 °C26 / 17–2926 / 18–2924 / 20–2822 / 20–2720 / 17–2718 / 15–2817 / 14–2919 / 15–2921 / 18–2823 / 20–2724 / 20–2825 / 19–29
Night °C19 / 12–2419 / 12–2418 / 13–2316 / 11–2214 / 9–2211 / 6–2310 / 5–2411 / 6–2413 / 8–2315 / 11–2216 / 12–2218 / 13–23
Rain mm108 / 62–250150 / 86–278122 / 69–234118 / 68–196105 / 55–26096 / 44–31965 / 35–27360 / 33–29257 / 32–25783 / 55–130106 / 71–149109 / 52–197
DLI40 / 19–4235 / 23–3731 / 28–3626 / 24–3421 / 18–3419 / 15–3321 / 17–3527 / 23–3532 / 29–3837 / 25–4240 / 20–4241 / 18–43
RH %62 / 58–6563 / 60–6662 / 59–6661 / 59–6561 / 58–6559 / 57–6758 / 56–6656 / 54–6757 / 54–6558 / 55–6460 / 57–6461 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 1217 grid cells holding the 1831 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 2423:6656 (-31.175, 152.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °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 1217 distinct grid cells holding the 1831 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2423:6656 (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 -31.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 39 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, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Marquesas, Society Is.
Kew's description“climber” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.158, 151.41 · in the densest population, 916 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1911 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1407 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 13 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 80 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 1911 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Stephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonicaStephania japonica

Photographs: (c) libby hepburn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Scott W. Gavins, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Alesha Teitzel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Traditional Herbal Medicines Against CNS Disorders from Bangladesh
Md. Josim Uddin, Christian Zidorn (2020) · Natural Products and Bioprospecting
Total Synthesis of the Norhasubanan Alkaloid Stephadiamine
Nina Hartrampf, Nils Winter, Gabriele Pupo, Brian M. Stoltz (2018) · Journal of the American Chemical Society
Hasubanan Alkaloids with δ-Opioid Binding Affinity from the Aerial Parts of Stephania japonica
Anthony R. Carroll, Thirumavalavan Arumugan, Joanne Redburn, Ana Ngo (2010) · Journal of Natural Products
Studies on the Alkaloids of Menispermaceuos Plants. CCX. Alkaloids of Stephania japonica MIERS. (Suppl. 9). Structure of Hasubanonine and Homostephanoline
Masao Tomita, Toshiro Ibuka, Yasuo InubushiI, Yasuo Watanabe (1965) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Natural neuroprotective alkaloids from Stephania japonica (Thunb.) Miers
Jiao Xiao, Tingyu Hao, Gang Chen, Junyu Song (2019) · Bioorganic Chemistry
Stephadiamine, a new skeletal alkaloid from Stephania japonica: The first example of a C-norhasubanan alkaloid.
Tooru Taga, Naoshige Akimoto, Toshiro Ibuka (1984) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Antioxidant, Analgesic and Toxic Potentiality of Stephania Japonica (Thunb.) Miers. Leaf
Muhammad Habibur Rahman, M. Badrul Alam, Nargis Sultana Chowdhury, Mithilesh Kumar Jha (2011) · International Journal of Pharmacology
Stephania japonica Ameliorates Scopolamine-Induced Memory Impairment in Mice through Inhibition of Acetylcholinesterase and Oxidative Stress
Md. Yusuf Al-Amin, Amitav Lahiry, Rafia Ferdous, Md. Kamrul Hasan (2022) · Advances in Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Phytochemical screening and study of antioxidant and analgesic potentials of ethanolic extract of Stephania japonica Linn.
M. Naim Uddin S., Nurul Amin Mohammad, Farook M.A., Hossain Hemayet (2014) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
Comparative phytochemical investigation of the sources of ayurvedic drugPatha: A chromatographic fingerprinting analysis
Kirankumar Hullatti, M. S. Sharada (2010) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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 Stephania 68 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 73 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.