Hydrangea

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Hydrangea

Hydrangea (common names Hydrangea and Hortensia) is a genus of about 70-75 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s native to southern and eastern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
(China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
, and Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
) and North

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
. The flowers are extremely common in the Azores

Azores

The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
Islands of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
, particularly on Faial Island

Faial Island

Faial Island , also known in English as Fayal, is a Portugal island of the Central group of the Azores Islands. Its area is 173 km? and it is located 28.7? W longitude and 38.6? N latitude....
, which is known as the "blue island" due to the vast number of hydrangeas present on the island and Flores Island, Flores meaning flowers in Portuguese.

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Encyclopedia

Hydrangea (common names Hydrangea and Hortensia) is a genus of about 70-75 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

Asia

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, Japan

Japan

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
, and Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
) and North

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and South America

South America

Azores

The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
Islands of Portugal

Portugal

Faial Island

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, and Japan

Japan

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
s 1-3 m tall, but some are small tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s, and others liana

Liana

The liana is any of various long-stemmed, usually woody vines that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in order to get access to well-lit areas of the forest....
s reaching up to 30 m by climbing up trees. They can be either deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe....
or evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
, though the widely cultivated temperate species are all deciduous.

Species in the related genus Schizophragma
Schizophragma

Schizophragma is a genus of four species of lianas in the Hydrangeaceae, native to Asia from the Himalaya east to Taiwan and Japan. One species, S. hydrangeoides, is known as Climbing Hydrangea Vine....
, also in Hydrangeaceae, are also often known as hydrangeas. Schizophragma hydrangeoides and Hydrangea petiolaris
Hydrangea petiolaris

Hydrangea petiolaris is a species native to the woodlands of Japan, Korea and Sakhalin in easternmost Siberia.It is a vigorous woody climbing plant, growing to 20 m height up trees or cliff, climbing by means of small aerial roots on the stems....
are both commonly known as climbing hydrangeas.

Life Cycle

Hydrangea flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are produced from early spring to late autumn; they grow in flowerheads (corymbs or panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched Indeterminate growth inflorescence with Pedicel flowers attached along the secondary branches ....
s) at the ends of the stems. In many species,the flowerheads contain two types of flowers, small fertile flowers in the middle of the flowerhead, and large, sterile bract-like flowers in a ring around the edge of each flowerhead. Other species have all the flowers fertile and of the same size.

Colors and Acidity

In most species the flowers are white

White

White is a color, the Color vision#Physiology of color perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in near equal amount and with high brightness compared to the surroundings....
, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple. In these species the exact colour often mirrors the pH

pH is a measure of the Acid or Base of a solution. It is defined as the cologarithm of the Activity of dissolved hydrogen ions . Hydrogen ion activity coefficients cannot be measured experimentally, so they are based on theoretical calculations....
of the soil; acid

Acid

An acid is traditionally considered any chemical compound that, when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion Activity greater than in pure water, i.e....
ic soils produce blue flowers, neutral soils produce very pale cream petals, and alkaline soils results in pink or purple. This is the caused by a color change of the flower pigments in the presence of aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....
ions which can be taken up into hyperaccumulating plant

Phytoremediation, Hyperaccumulators

Hyperaccumulators table ? 1 Cs-137 activity was much smaller in leaves of larch and sycamore maple than of spruce: spruce > larch > sycamore maple....
s.

Partial list of species

Hydrangea anomala
Hydrangea anomala

Hydrangea anomala is a species of hydrangea native to the woodlands of the Himalaya, southern and central China and northern Myanmar.It is a woody climbing plant, growing to 12 m height up trees or cliff, climbing by means of small aerial roots on the stems....
(Climbing Hydrangea). Himalaya, southwest China.
Hydrangea arborescens
Hydrangea arborescens

Hydrangea arborescens, commonly known as Wild Hydrangea or Smooth Hydrangea, is a species of Hydrangea native to eastern North America....
(Smooth Hydrangea). Eastern North America.
Hydrangea aspera
Hydrangea aspera

Hydrangea aspera is a shrub native to the region between the Himalaya, across southern China, to Taiwan. The flowers are typically borne in large heads and are in variable shades of pale blue....
. China, Himalaya.
Hydrangea bretschneideri. China.
Hydrangea candida. China.
Hydrangea caudatifolia. China.
Hydrangea chinensis. China.
Hydrangea chungii. China.
Hydrangea cinerea
Hydrangea cinerea

Hydrangea cinerea is a species of Hydrangea native to eastern North America....
(Ashy Hydrangea). Eastern United States.
Hydrangea coacta. China.
Hydrangea coenobialis. China.
Hydrangea davidii. China.
Hydrangea dumicola. China.
Hydrangea gracilis. China.
Hydrangea heteromalla. Himalaya, west and north China.
Hydrangea hirta. Japan.
Hydrangea hypoglauca. China.
Hydrangea integrifolia. China.
Hydrangea involucrata. Japan, Taiwan.
Hydrangea kawakamii. Taiwan.
Hydrangea kwangsiensis. China.
Hydrangea kwangtungensis. China.
Hydrangea lingii. China.
Hydrangea linkweiensis. China.
Hydrangea longifolia. China.
Hydrangea longipes. Western China.
Hydrangea macrocarpa. China.
Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrangea macrophylla

Hydrangea macrophylla is a species of Hydrangea native to Japan. Common names include Bigleaf Hydrangea, French Hydrangea, Lacecap Hydrangea, Mophead Hydrangea, Penny Mac and Hortensia....
(Bigleaf Hydrangea). Northern Venezuela, Korea, Southern Japan.
Hydrangea mangshanensis. China.
Hydrangea paniculata (Panicled Hydrangea). Eastern China, Korea, Japan, Sakhalin.
Hydrangea petiolaris
Hydrangea petiolaris

Hydrangea petiolaris is a species native to the woodlands of Japan, Korea and Sakhalin in easternmost Siberia.It is a vigorous woody climbing plant, growing to 20 m height up trees or cliff, climbing by means of small aerial roots on the stems....
(Climbing Hydrangea). Japan, Korea, Sakhalin.
Hydrangea quercifolia
Hydrangea quercifolia

Hydrangea quercifolia is a species of hydrangea native to the southeastern United States, from North Carolina west to Tennessee, and south to Florida and Louisiana....
(Oakleaf Hydrangea). Southeast United States.
Hydrangea radiata (Silverleaf Hydrangea). Southeast United States.
Hydrangea robusta. China, Himalaya.
Hydrangea sargentiana. Western China.
Hydrangea scandens. Southern Japan south to the Philippines.
Hydrangea serrata. Japan, Korea.
Hydrangea serratifolia. Chile, western Argentina.
Hydrangea stenophylla. China.
Hydrangea strigosa. China.
Hydrangea stylosa. China.
Hydrangea sungpanensis. China.
Hydrangea xanthoneura. China.
Hydrangea zhewanensis. China.

Cultivation and uses

Hydrangeas are popular ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are typically grown in the flower garden or as house plants. Most commonly they are grown for the display of their flowers. Other common ornamental features include leaves, scent, fruit, Plant stem and bark....
s, grown for their large flowerheads, with Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrangea macrophylla

Hydrangea macrophylla is a species of Hydrangea native to Japan. Common names include Bigleaf Hydrangea, French Hydrangea, Lacecap Hydrangea, Mophead Hydrangea, Penny Mac and Hortensia....
being by far the most widely grown with over 600 named cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
s, many selected to have only large sterile flowers in the flowerheads. Some are best pruned on an annual basis when the new leaf buds begin to appear. If not pruned regularly, the bush will become very 'leggy', growing upwards until the weight of the stems is greater than their strength, at which point the stems will sag down to the ground and possibly break. Other species only flower on 'old wood'. Thus new wood resulting from pruning will not produce flowers until the following season.

Hydrangeas are moderately toxic if eaten, with all parts of the plant containing cyanogenic glycosides. In Korean tea

Korean tea

Korean tea refers to various types of tisane that can be served hot or cold. Not necessarily related to "common" tea, they are made from diverse substances including fruits, leaves, roots, and grains used in traditional Korean medicine....
, Hydrangea serrata (hangul

Hangul

Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logogram Sino-Korean vocabulary hanja system. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official writing system of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China....
:??? hanja

Hanja

Hanja is the Korean language name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese language and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation....
:) is used for an herbal tea called sugukcha or ilsulcha. Hydrangea paniculata is reportedly sometimes smoked as an intoxicant, despite the danger of illness and/or death due to the cyanide.

Diseases

External links

(University of Illinois Extension)
- Informative but non-scholarly essay on Hydrangea.