毡毛绣球 zhan mao xiu qiu

Shrubs. Young branchlets, petioles, and inflorescences densely gray-white to slightly yellow hirsute. Branchlets red-brown, longitudinally striate, glabrescent. Petiole thick, 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 9-14.5 × 3.5-6 cm, thickly papery, abaxially densely gray-white hirsute and brownish tomentose with both types of hairs felted together and carpetlike, secondary veins 6 or 7 on both sides of midvein. Inflorescences corymbose cymes, lax, ca. 15 cm wide, apex arcuate. Sterile flowers with sepals 4, purplish red, suborbicular, 1-1.5 cm, margin obtusely denticulate. Fertile flowers unknown. Capsule cupular, ca. 2.5 × 3 mm, apex truncate; persistent calyx teeth obtusely triangular, ca. 0.5 mm; persistent styles 2, reflexed, stigmas hemispheric. Seeds brownish, oblong to broadly ellipsoid, compressed, winged at both ends; wings ca. 0.3 mm; seed coat striate veined. Fr. Sep.

* Barren areas on mountain slopes; ca. 1300 m. SW Shaanxi (Nanzheng Xian).

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