Vasilis Teodoridis:
Saxifragaceae | Hydrangea
21. Hydrangea xanthoneura Diels; Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29: 373. 1900.
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Hydrangea pubinervis Rehder; H. xanthoneura var. lancifolia Rehder; H. xanthoneura var. setchuenensis Rehder; H. xanthoneura var. sikangensis Chun; H. xanthoneura var. wilsonii Rehder.
Shrubs or small trees; 1-7 m tall. First years branchlets black-brown to gray-brown; glabrous or pilose; glabrescent; sometimes with lenticels. Second years branchlets with lenticels; bark thick; not easily peeled off. Petiole 1.5-5 cm; pilose; leaf blade abaxially greenish; adaxially yellowish green; elliptic; oblong-ovate; or oblong-obovate; 8-18 x 3-10 cm; papery to thickly so; abaxially glabrous except grayish pubescent to densely slightly crisped villous along veins; adaxially strigose along veins; secondary veins 7 or 8 on both sides of midvein; erect and obliquely ascending; yellowish; base broadly cuneate to subrounded; margin densely serrate; apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences corymbose cymes; 10-20 cm wide; apex arcuate; branches 3; unequal with central one usually longer than others; pubescent. Sterile flowers with sepals 4(or 5); yellowish green; broadly elliptic to suborbicular; 1-3.5 x 1-2.5 cm. Fertile flowers with calyx tube shallowly cupular; ca. 1 mm; teeth triangular; equaling calyx tube. Petals white to greenish; oblong-ovate; ca. 2.5 mm. Stamens 10-13; unequal; anthers subglobose; ca. 0.5 mm. Ovary less than 1/2 superior. Styles 3 or 4; ca. 1 mm in fruit; stigmas narrowly ellipsoid; slightly enlarged. Capsule ovoid-globose; ca. 3 mm in diam.; projected apical part conical; ca. 1 mm; ca. 1/3 as long as capsule body. Seeds brown to brownish; narrowly ellipsoid; ca. 2 mm; winged at both ends; wings ca. 0.5 mm; seed coat striate veined. Fl. Jun-Jul; fr. Sep-Oct.
* Dense to sparse forests or thickets on mountain slopes or tops or trailsides; 1600-3200 m. Guizhou; NW Hubei; Sichuan; Yunnan.