Himalayan Hydrangea is a large shrubs or small
tree, 2-5 m tall or more. Leaf-stalks are purplish red, 2-4 cm, hairy.
Leaves are broadly ovate, elliptics or oblong-ovate, 6-15 × 3-8 cm,
papery. They are densely gray-white on the underside, yellow-brown
hairy to hairless above, secondary veins 7-9 on both sides of midvein,
base shallowly heart-shaped, blunt or flat, margin densely toothed or
doubly toothed, tip pointed to long pointed. Flowers are borne in
flat-topped clusters 15-22 cm across. Sterile flowers with 4 white or
yellowish sepals, elliptic, broadly ovate, or broadly round, 0.7-1.6 ×
0.5-1.4 cm, sit on the outside of the clusters. Fertile flowers with
calyx tube nearly funnelform to bell-shaped, 1-1.5 mm are in the center
of the cluster. Petals white or yellowish, oblong-ovate, 1.8-2 mm.
Stamens are 10, unequal. Capsules are ovoid-globose to globose, 2.5-3.5
mm in diameter, projected apical part conical, 0.8-1.2 mm, about 1/3 as
long as capsule body. Himalayan Hydrangea is found in the Himalayas,
from Uttarakhand to SW China and Myanmar, at altitudes of 2400-3300 m.
Flowering: June-July.
Identification credit: Tabish
Photographed in Lachung, Sikkim.
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The flower labeled Himalayan Hydrangea is ...
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