Hydrangea petiolaris

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Hydrangea petiolaris

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Cornales
Family: Hydrangeaceae
Genus: Hydrangea
Species: H. petiolaris
Binomial name
Hydrangea petiolaris
Siebold & Zucc.

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 rock faces, climbing by means of small aerial roots on the stems. The leaves are deciduous, ovate, 4-11 cm long and 3-8 cm broad, with a heart-shaped base, coarsely serrated margin and acute apex. The flowers are, produced in flat corymbs 15-25 cm diameter in mid-summer; each corymb includes a small number of peripheral sterile white flowers 2.5-4.5 cm across, and numerous small, off-white fertile flowers 1-2 mm diameter. The fruit is a dry urn-shaped capsule 3-5 mm diameter containing several small winged seeds.

It is sometimes treated as a subspecies of the closely related Hydrangea anomala from China, Myanmar, and the Himalaya; that species differs in being smaller (to 12 m) and having flower corymbs up to 15 cm diameter. The common name Climbing hydrangea is applied to both species.

[edit] Cultivation and uses

Hydrangea petiolaris is grown as an ornamental plant in Europe and North America, where it is grown either on walls or on trellises or fences. Its clinging rootlets are not as strong as most other wall-climbing vines, and so is often anchored artificially.