Hydrangea macrophylla (Thunb.) Ser.
Bigleaf Hydrangea, Chinese sweetleaf, French hydrangea, Garten-Hortensie (DE)
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Hydrangea macrophylla is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae, native and endemic to Japan. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 3 m (10 ft) tall by 2.5 m (8 ft) or more broad with large heads of pink or blue flowers in summer and autumn. It is currently treated as monotypic, with no subspecies or varieties. Common names include bigleaf hydrangea, and, for particular cultivar groups, the names lacecap hydrangea, mophead hydrangea, and hortensia. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Hydrangea macrophylla”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Hydrangea
Hydrangea is a genus of more than 70 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. Hydrangea is also used as the common name for the genus; some are also often called hortensia. The genus was first described from Virginia in North America, but by far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Hydrangea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as ? otaksa E.H.Wilson; Hortensia japonica J.F.Gmel.; Hortensia macrophylla (Thunb.) H.Ohba & S.Akiyama; Hortensia macrophylla f. isobue (H.Ohba & S.Akiyama) H.Ohba & S.Akiyama; Hortensia macrophylla f. isonotaki (H.Ohba & S.Akiyama) H.Ohba & S.Akiyama and 45 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hydrangea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1231 mm of 1651 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.7 °C against a yearly mean of 15.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1651 mm a year, wettest September at 215 mm, driest December at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1651 mm a year at the habitat, 1231 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 215 mm, driest December at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1373 mm to 3176 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 7 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.8 °C to 8.6 °C), warmest day 27.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 8 / 3–12 | 9 / 4–12 | 12 / 7–14 | 17 / 14–18 | 20 / 18–22 | 23 / 21–25 | 26 / 24–28 | 28 / 26–30 | 25 / 23–26 | 20 / 18–22 | 16 / 12–18 | 11 / 6–14 |
| Night °C | 2 / -4–9 | 2 / -4–9 | 5 / -0–11 | 10 / 5–14 | 15 / 10–18 | 18 / 15–21 | 22 / 19–24 | 24 / 21–25 | 21 / 17–24 | 15 / 11–20 | 10 / 5–16 | 5 / -1–11 |
| Rain mm | 65 / 44–169 | 72 / 47–178 | 123 / 86–278 | 130 / 102–245 | 149 / 120–260 | 187 / 151–361 | 189 / 143–258 | 170 / 137–255 | 215 / 188–356 | 191 / 133–364 | 103 / 79–247 | 57 / 44–163 |
| DLI | 17 / 16–18 | 22 / 21–23 | 26 / 25–28 | 32 / 31–34 | 34 / 32–35 | 31 / 28–33 | 32 / 29–36 | 33 / 30–37 | 25 / 23–28 | 20 / 19–22 | 16 / 16–18 | 15 / 14–16 |
| RH % | 54 / 53–60 | 54 / 53–59 | 57 / 55–60 | 59 / 58–61 | 62 / 60–64 | 66 / 63–69 | 68 / 65–71 | 66 / 64–69 | 64 / 62–66 | 60 / 58–63 | 58 / 56–62 | 55 / 53–61 |
Each figure is the median across the 75 grid cells holding the 85 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1096:6382 (35.175, 139.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 75 distinct grid cells holding the 85 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1096:6382 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_139.375, lapse-corrected +152 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 221 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Jonas Kraft, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Louis Imbeau, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mark Richman, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Hydrangea macrophylla, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Fatsia japonica Fatsia
Aspidistra elatior Cast iron plant
Rosa luciae Memorial Rose
Ligustrum japonicum Japanese Privet
Trachelospermum asiaticum Asian jasmine
Bletilla striata Chinese ground orchidOther Hydrangea 5 in the reference
Hydrangea arborescens Smooth Hydrangea
Hydrangea paniculata Panicle Hydrangea
Hydrangea petiolaris Climbing hydrangea
Hydrangea quercifolia oak-leaf hydrangea
Hydrangea serrata Mountain Hydrangea History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








