Flora of New Zealand Series

hydrangea

Deciduous, densely-branched, rounded shrub to 1.5-(3) m high; twigs glabrous and flexible, becoming mottled and brittle. Lvs towards ends of branches on younger wood; petiole short; lamina elliptic to ovate or obovate, (5)-10-20 × (3)-5-15 cm, acuminate, cuneate, coarsely serrate; both surfaces glabrous and greasy, the upper lustrous, the lower dull with a conspicuous network of veins. Corymb broad, flat-topped or convex, much-branched, hairy, up to 20 cm diam., usually largely composed of sterile fls, sometimes with an outer ring of sterile fls and central fls fertile. Sepals of sterile fls petaloid, spreading, broad-elliptic to obovate, 1-2 cm long, pink, blue, white, or greenish. Corolla c. 3 mm diam.; petals minute and incurved, pink or blue. Stamens 10. Ovary enclosed in calyx tube at anthesis, later projecting. Capsule c. 5 mm long.

N.: sporadic throughout near urban areas; S.: well established in parts of Nelson and the West Coast.

Japan 1975

Particularly regions of moderate to high rainfall, mostly wasteland, scrub, and forest margins, also coastal habitats.

FL Nov-Mar.

Hydrangea is frequent as a long-persistent relict or as deliberate plantings on forest margins in wetter parts of N.Z.; some forms also set seed and have established as small wild populations.