The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Hydrangea aspera
Also called Rough Leaved Hydrangea, Roughleaf Hydrangea
Rough Leaf Hydrangea is a large deciduous shrub, up to about 3 m tall and wide, with rough, downy leaves and big flat flower heads in late summer. Give it a sheltered spot, partial or afternoon shade, and acidic to neutral soil.
Hydrangea aspera is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae native to dense forests in the region between the Himalayas, across southern China, to Taiwan. It is a large, erect deciduous shrub growing to 3 m (10 ft) tall and wide, with broadly oval leaves and dense branches. The flowers are typically borne in large flat heads in late summer, and are in variable shades of pale blue and pink, fringed by white or pale pink sterile florets.
The Latin aspera means "rough-textured" and refers to the downy lower surface of the leaves.
The plant is widely cultivated, and favors a sheltered position in acidic or neutral soil, with best growth often in partial or afternoon shade. The leaves, in some forms exceeding 30.5 cm (12 inches) long, are vulnerable to drying winds as well as physical wind damage. Numerous cultivars have been produced as ornamental subjects for parks and gardens. They include:
In addition to forms of garden origin, various forms of wild origin are cultivated such as Kawakamii, Macrophylla, Robusta, Sargentiana, Strigosa, and Villosa. The phenotype for plant images returned by a web search on such terms can vary widely, a sign of unsettled taxonomy or complex expression of forms due to wide geographic ranges or other factors. Some authorities give full species status, e. g. H. robusta and H. longipes, whereas other sources assign subspecies, e.g. H. aspera ssp. robusta, or H. aspera ssp. kawakamii. Most researchers and horticulturalists agree that further study is needed to solidify the taxonomy, as there is an insufficient amount of data published.
Hydrangea febrifuga · Hydrangea · Climbing Hydrangea · Wild hydrangea · Hydrangea fauriei · Hydrangea glaucescens · Japanese Hydrangea Vine · Bigleaf Hydrangea · Panicled hydrangea · Climbing Hydrangea · Oakleaf hydrangea · Mountain hydrangea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hydrangea aspera by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
