Staphylea japonica(Thunb.) Mabb.

WFO wfo-0001421829 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Staphylea japonica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-19 / obs. 184050347
Staphylea japonica, photographed by 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)
fig. b 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 161474320
Staphylea japonica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149591285
Staphylea japonica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 135434648
Staphylea japonica, photographed by 黃美滿
fig. e 黃美滿, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118729286
Staphylea japonica, photographed by 林嘉恩
fig. f 林嘉恩, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118376076
Staphylea japonica, photographed by WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁
fig. g WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104333545
Staphylea japonica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. h Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112426007

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 9 botanical countries

Regions where Staphylea japonica is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanVietnam KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Staphylea 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
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Vietnam VIE ASIA-TROPICAL

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 903 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -1.4 °C 10.2 °C 14.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.6 °C 28.4 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,433 mm 3,919 mm 4,601 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 141 mm 745 mm 879 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 903 research-grade observations of Staphylea japonica that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 24 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.

  • Euodia chaffanjonii H.Lév.
  • Euscaphis chinensis Gagnep.
  • Euscaphis fukienensis P.S.Hsu
  • Euscaphis japonica (Thunb.) Kanitz
  • Euscaphis japonica f. eburnea T.Yamanaka
  • Euscaphis japonica f. lanata (Masam.) K.Iwats. & H.Ohba
  • Euscaphis japonica var. formosana Masam.
  • Euscaphis japonica var. jianningensis Q.J.Wang
  • Euscaphis japonica var. lanata Masam.
  • Euscaphis japonica var. pubescens P.L.Chiu & G.R.Zhong
  • Euscaphis japonica var. ternata Rehder
  • Euscaphis japonica var. wupingensis B.P.Cai & Zhen R.Chen
  • Euscaphis konishii Hayata
  • Euscaphis saponica Pax
  • Euscaphis simplicifolia Siebold & Zucc.
  • Euscaphis staphyleoides Siebold & Zucc.
  • Euscaphis tonkinensis Gagnep.
  • Evodia chaffanjoni H.Lév.
  • Hebokia japonica (Thunb.) Raf.
  • Sambucus japonica Thunb.
  • Sapindus cavaleriei H.Lév.
  • Staphylea japonica f. eburnea (T.Yamanaka) H.Ohashi
  • Staphylea japonica f. lanata (Masam.) H.Ohashi
  • Triceros japonica (Thunb.) Baill.

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.