Polygala japonicaHoutt.

WFO wfo-0000488758 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Polygala japonica, photographed by Repina Tatyana
fig. a Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-22 / obs. 199588488
Polygala japonica, photographed by Repina Tatyana
fig. b Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131217282
Polygala japonica, photographed by りなべる
fig. c りなべる, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125162942
Polygala japonica, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 120170550
Polygala japonica, photographed by Meng-Ying Tsai
fig. e Meng-Ying Tsai, CC0 1.0 / obs. 111672565
Polygala japonica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92987072
Polygala japonica, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. g Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 80795183
Polygala japonica, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 70157958

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 19 botanical countries

Regions where Polygala japonica is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, Laos, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanKhabarovskManchuriaPrimoryeTaiwanTibetAssamLaosMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesThailandVietnam KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Polygala japonica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
Nansei-shoto NNS
Primorye PRM
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Laos LAO
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 119 in flower of 127 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Polygala japonica observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 119 of 127 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 5 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Polygala coniicarpa Hance
  • Polygala hondoensis Nakai
  • Polygala lourerii Gardner & Champ.
  • Polygala luzoniensis Merr.
  • Polygala taquetii H.Lév.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.