Hydrangea hirsuta
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Credits
Julian Sutton (2025)
Recommended citation
Sutton, J. (2025), 'Hydrangea hirsuta' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Dichroa hirsuta Gagnep.
Other taxa in genus
- Hydrangea ampla
- Hydrangea angustipetala
- Hydrangea anomala
- Hydrangea arborescens
- Hydrangea arborescens Species Complex Cultivars A–M
- Hydrangea arborescens Species Complex Cultivars N–Z
- Hydrangea aspera
- Hydrangea aspera Species Complex Cultivars
- Hydrangea barbara
- Hydrangea bretschneideri
- Hydrangea cinerea
- Hydrangea daimingshanensis
- Hydrangea davidii
- Hydrangea fauriei
- Hydrangea febrifuga
- Hydrangea glaucescens
- Hydrangea heteromalla
- Hydrangea heteromalla Species Complex Cultivars
- Hydrangea hirta
- Hydrangea hwangii
- Hydrangea hydrangeoides
- Hydrangea indochinensis
- Hydrangea integrifolia
- Hydrangea Intersectional Hybrids
- Hydrangea involucrata
- Hydrangea kawakamii
- Hydrangea kwangsiensis
- Hydrangea liukiuensis
- Hydrangea lobbii
- Hydrangea longifolia
- Hydrangea longipes
- Hydrangea luteovenosa
- Hydrangea macrophylla
- Hydrangea obtusifolia
- Hydrangea paniculata
- Hydrangea paniculata Cultivars A–D
- Hydrangea paniculata Cultivars E–I
- Hydrangea paniculata Cultivars J–L
- Hydrangea paniculata Cultivars M–R
- Hydrangea paniculata Cultivars S–Z
- Hydrangea petiolaris
- Hydrangea platyarguta
- Hydrangea pottingeri
- Hydrangea quercifolia
- Hydrangea radiata
- Hydrangea robusta
- Hydrangea sargentiana
- Hydrangea scandens
- Hydrangea schizomollis
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars A
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars B
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars C
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars D
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars E–F
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars G
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars H
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars I–J
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars K
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars L
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars M
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars N–O
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars P–Q
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars R
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars S
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars T–U
- Hydrangea Section Macrophyllae Cultivars V–Z
- Hydrangea seemannii
- Hydrangea serrata
- Hydrangea serratifolia
- Hydrangea sikokiana
- Hydrangea species of Section Cornidia
- Hydrangea species of Sections Cardiandra and Deinanthe
- Hydrangea strigosa
- Hydrangea stylosa
- Hydrangea tomentella
- Hydrangea × versicolor
- Hydrangea viburnoides
- Hydrangea villosa
- Hydrangea xanthoneura
- Hydrangea × ytiensis
Evergreen shrub to 2.5 m. Branchlets, petioles, veins and inflorescences with both short, crisped and long, straight hairs. Leaves opposite. Leaf blade papery, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 10–15 × 3.5–6 cm, with 8–10 secondary veins each side of midvein; upper surface with long, stiff hairs; lower surface with dense short, stiff hairs; base attenuate; margin serrate; apex acuminate to caudate; petiole 1–1.5 cm. Inflorescence terminal, a corymbose cyme 3–5 cm across, on a 3–5 mm peduncle; only fertile flowers present. Flowers open from obovoid buds ~3 mm diameter, on ~2 mm pedicels; calyx tube hirsute, with 5–6 lanceolate, hirsute lobes 4–6 mm long; petals 5, blue (to perhaps whitish), ovate-lanceolate, ~3 × 2 mm, free; stamens 10–12; ovary about ¾ inferior; styles 3–5, with oblong stigmas. Fruit a blue berry 3–4 mm across. Flowering April–May, fruiting July–October (China). (Huang & Bartholomew 2001).
Distribution China Guangxi, Yunnan Vietnam
Habitat Mixed forests; 400–1500 m asl.
USDA Hardiness Zone 9-10
RHS Hardiness Rating H3
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
A member of Section Dichroa, H. hirsuta is considered distinct from the widespread and variable H. febrifuga (see that species for general discussion of dichroas), but in practice there have been problems recognizing it. We include it here because a few collections, rare and experimental in gardens, may belong here. All are evergreen to semi-evergreen, depending on conditions; blue flowers (all fertile) and berries are de rigueur; none are likely to prove very hardy.
This is a plant of southern China and adjacent Vietnam, and as its name suggests is notably hairy. It has both short, crisped hairs and long straight ones on the veins, petioles and young branchlets, densely on the leaf undersides (Huang & Bartholomew 2001). Images of wild plants show the inflorescence branches whitish with coarse hairs (Chinese Academy of Sciences 2024). This hair dimorphism is shared with H. daimingshanensis (less densely hairy and with very short, deltoid, glabrous calyx lobes) and H. yaoshanensis (Y.C.Wu) Y.De Smet & Granados (S China, with petals hairy on both surfaces – not described here). The great majority of herbarium specimens identified as H. hirsuta are from Guangxi, with a very few from other parts of southern China or Vietnam (Chinese Academy of Sciences 2024).
A few recent collections from Vietnam have been placed here. Crûg Farm’s BWJ 16315 (dense forest in the Bac Me area of Ha Giang province, 2017 – Crûg Farm Plants 2024) has upright growth and seems to fit the species description quite well, at least vegetatively. The dark blue stems seen in the wild were not evident on pot-grown plants under glass at Crûg Farm; further, the calyx lobes appear triangular rather than lanceolate in bud (pers. obs. August 2023), although this is also true of some images of wild plants (Chinese Academy of Sciences 2024). Other Crûg collections sometimes listed as H. hirsuta are BSWJ 8207 (Sapa area, Vietnam) and BSWJ 8371 (N Laos). The latter is a diploid and did not cluster with another putative H. hirsuta in a molecular study (Rinehart, Scheffler & Reed 2010); it is now listed as H. febrifuga by Crûg Farm. Pan-Global Plants, UK, has at one time listed the collection NJM 10.051 (Tay Con Linh, NE Vietnam, 1,850 m) as Dichroa aff. hirsuta. Collections of these tender, more or less evergreen species often last a short time in commerce and become hard to trace, if they even survive.
