Shrub to 2 m tall. New growth hairy at first. Leaves lanceolate, to about 15 cm long, the veins below with short hairs. Sterile flowers to about 1.5 cm wide, the sepals sometimes of different sizes, shapes and margination. Fertile flowers small, pink or blue.
Syn. H. macrophylla subsp. serrata (Thunb.) Makino
The differences between this species and H. macrophylla are small and some botanists regard them as coastal and inland forms of the same species. Alteration of the plants in horticulture has further complicated the distinction.
H. scandens (L.) DC. from S Japan is occasionally available; it is an early flowering, small uneven lacecap with whitish, whitish blue or cream sterile flowers (not pink or blue) and toothed sepals and is generally sold as subsp. chinensis (Maxim) E.M. McClint. Syn. H. chinensis Maxim.
Japan, Korea.
SERRATAS Lacecap cultivars derived from H. serrata. Flower heads relatively small and umbrellashaped with entire or toothed sepals.
Source: (2002). Hydrangeaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Small, densely branched shrub. Fertile flowers blue. Sterile marginal flowers reddish purple. Flower colour pale blue on acid soil. Sometimes listed as two words. An old Japanese cultivar.
Medium shrub. Fertile flowers pink to blue. Sterile marginal flowers with larger, more pointed outer sepals and generally wavy-toothed, white at first but becoming reddish. Origin uk, int. Mr Chambers of Grayswood Hill, 1888.
Shrub to about 1 m tall. New growth reddish brown. Flower clusters opening more or less cream with pale pink edges but soon deep red and becoming purple. Raised g. Arends, Wuppertal, Germany, c. 1961. Sometimes regarded as a hybrid, h. macrophylla _ h. serrata.
