Hydrangea tomentella
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Credits
Julian Sutton (2025)
Recommended citation
Sutton, J. (2025), 'Hydrangea tomentella' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Pileostegia tomentella Hand.-Mazz.
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 hirsuta
- 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 × versicolor
- Hydrangea viburnoides
- Hydrangea villosa
- Hydrangea xanthoneura
- Hydrangea × ytiensis
Evergreen climbing or prostrate shrub allied to Hydrangea viburnoides, differing in its branchlets, leaves and inflorescences being densely covered in rusty-brown stellate hairs (versus glabrous); and in its oblong to obovate-oblong leaves with shallowly cordate to rounded bases (versus elliptic-oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic with cuneate to truncate bases). (Huang & Bartholomew 2001; Liu & Zhu 2011).
Distribution China Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi
Habitat Forests in valleys; 300–700 m asl.
This southern Chinese species has not been identified for certain in Western gardens. We include it briefly to aid identifications and because an unidentified member of Section Pileostegia collected in N Vietnam has sometimes been tentatively placed here (Crûg Farm 2023). Plants from FMWJ 13444 (Sapa, 2085 m asl) have dense, shaggy whitish hairs on the young stems, and more or less glabrous leaves with cuneate bases and rather abruptly acuminate apices, not a good fit for either H. tomentella or H. viburnoides as known in China. This collection is striking for its red young leaves.
Two attempts to introduce genuine Chinese H. tomentella have failed (D. Hinkley pers. comm. to J. Aldridge).