Flora of Japan

Japan contains vast islands, with its southernmost tropical prefecture of Okinawa to its northernmost chilly prefecture of Hokkaido. Japan contains circa 5,500 indigenous species of plants on its 377,975 square-kilometer land mass.The flora of Japan comprises a large assemblage of plant species which can be found in Japan, such as sakura, katsura, momiji and azalea. There are many species which are endemic to Japan.

Japan has significant diversity in flora. Approximately 7,000 plant species that inhabit Japan of which one-third are only found in Japan, making them endemic. Diversity is much more vast in the Amami-Sohima and Tokunoshima islands of the Ryukyu archipelago. They share a unique biodiverse relationship with Okinawa island, making it a hostpot for flora diversity. The richness of Japan's flora diversity is due partly through its' variation in latitude and altitude, climatic conditions like monsoons, and multiple geohistorical incidences of connections with the mainland. .