Hydrangea altissima Wallich; H. anomala var. sericea C. C. Yang; H. glabra Hayata; H. glaucophylla C. C. Yang; H. glaucophylla var. sericea (C. C. Yang) C. F. Wei.

Shrubs climbing, 2-4 m tall or more. Branchlets gray-brown, robust, glabrous; bark thin, loose, peeled off into fragments when old. Petiole 2-8 cm, glabrous or pilose; leaf blade yellow-brown on both surfaces when dry, elliptic, oblong-ovate, or ovate, 6-17 × 3-10 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially sometimes sparsely brownish pubescent along veins and barbate at vein axils, secondary veins 6-8 on both sides of midvein, abaxially prominent, base cuneate, subrounded, or sometimes shallowly cordate, margin densely serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences corymbose cymes, to 30 cm wide in fruit, pubescent, apex arcuate. Sterile flowers with sepals 4, broadly obovate to suborbicular, 1-2.2 × 1-2.2 cm, margin entire except for a few obtuse teeth. Fertile flowers with calyx tube campanulate, 1-1.5 mm; teeth broadly ovate to triangular, 0.5-0.8 mm. Petals apically connate and forming a calyptra, apex rounded to subacute. Stamens 9-18, subequal; anthers subglobose, small. Ovary inferior. Styles 2(or 3), recurved, ca. 1.5 mm in fruit. Capsule urn-shaped, 3-4.5 mm in diam., apex truncate. Seeds brownish, ellipsoid to oblong, compressed, 0.7-1 mm; wing encircling seed. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.

The leaves are used medicinally.

Dense to sparse forests in valleys, along stream banks, or on rocky mountain slopes; 500-2900 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].