尾叶绣球 wei ye xiu qiu

Shrubs ca. 1 m tall. Young branchlets, petioles, peduncles, and pedicels densely yellowish pubescent. Branchlets yellowish, terete, glabrescent. Petiole thick, 2-3 cm; leaf blade elliptic to obovate-oblong, 7-19.5 × 2.5-8.5 cm, membranous, both surfaces pubescent, more densely so abaxially, secondary veins 7-9 on both sides of midvein, slender, abaxially slightly prominent, base broadly cuneate, margin roughly long serrate, apex caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences corymbose cymes, to 13 cm wide in fruit, apex slightly arcuate; peduncle short; branches 3, subequal. Sterile flowers with sepals (3 or)4(or 5), suborbicular to broadly orbicular, 1.2-1.7 × 1.1-2 cm, margin entire or apically few denticulate. Fertile flowers small. Calyx tube ca. 1 mm; teeth triangular, 0.5-0.8 mm. Petals purple, long ovate, 3-3.5 mm. Stamens 10, 3-5 mm. Ovary less than 1/2 superior. Capsule subglobose, 1.5-2 mm in diam., projected apical part 0.5-0.7 mm, ca. 1/3 as long as capsule body. Seeds brownish, oblong to globose, 0.4-0.5 × 0.3-0.4 mm, wingless or sometimes shortly winged at one or both ends; seed coat net veined. Fl. Jun, fr. Oct.

* Bamboo forests; 600-700 m. E Jiangxi (Lichuan Xian).

One of the present authors (Bartholomew) believes that this species is not distinct from Hydrangea chungii.