Species
+

Hydrangea quercifolia Bartram

Oakleaf hydrangea, oak-leaf hydrangea, oak-leaved hydrangea, oakleaf hydrangea

Climate known 51 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 quercifolia, commonly known as oakleaf hydrangea or oak-leaved hydrangea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, in woodland habitats from North Carolina west to Tennessee, and south to Florida and Eastern Texas. A deciduous shrub with white showy flower heads, it is grown as a garden plant, with numerous cultivars available commercially.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hydrangea quercifolia”, 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.

Family
Hydrangeaceae
Described by
Bartram
Native to
Alabama, Florida, Georgia +4
Wild records
1545 in range· 581 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1409mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 136 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hydrangea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to April and June to July in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1409 mm a year, wettest February at 136 mm, driest October at 89 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hydrangea angulata Tausch; Hydrangea quinquefolia D.Dietr.; Hydrangea radiata Sm.

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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to April and June to July in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1000 mm of 1409 mm) takes 8 months, November to April and June to July. Mean temperature moves 20.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to January and May to October.

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 1409 mm a year, wettest February at 136 mm, driest October at 89 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1409 mm a year at the habitat, 1000 mm of it November to April and June to July. Wettest month February at 136 mm, driest October at 89 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1255 mm to 1572 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 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 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 41).

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 -8.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.5 °C, the absolute minimum -22.5 °C, about 57 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.7 °C to 6.5 °C), warmest day 31.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.5 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1409 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 854 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -22.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-22.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 15–39RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 854 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 8–1613 / 11–1818 / 15–2122 / 20–2526 / 24–2930 / 28–3231 / 29–3231 / 29–3228 / 26–3023 / 20–2617 / 15–2112 / 9–17
Night °C2 / -1–73 / 1–87 / 4–1111 / 9–1416 / 13–1820 / 18–2222 / 20–2322 / 19–2319 / 16–2113 / 10–168 / 5–123 / 1–8
Rain mm125 / 100–145136 / 106–152135 / 113–152112 / 85–131112 / 80–141116 / 103–158129 / 112–168107 / 87–167101 / 86–13289 / 75–110116 / 81–130131 / 97–158
DLI17 / 16–1921 / 20–2429 / 28–3136 / 35–3939 / 38–4139 / 39–4038 / 37–3935 / 34–3730 / 29–3225 / 24–2718 / 17–2115 / 14–18
RH %58 / 58–5958 / 57–5856 / 56–5856 / 55–5758 / 57–6059 / 58–6261 / 60–6360 / 59–6459 / 58–6257 / 57–5958 / 57–5959 / 58–60

Each figure is the median across the 854 grid cells holding the 1445 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 1112:1804 (34.375, -89.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 854 distinct grid cells holding the 1445 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1112:1804 (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 34.50_-90.000, lapse-corrected +9 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 95 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee· introduced: Connecticut, North Carolina
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.828, -85.621 · in the densest population, 623 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1545 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 581 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 114 km away. 148 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 100 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1545 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifoliaHydrangea quercifolia

Photographs: (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Will McFarland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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 quercifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ultrasound Pulse Emission Spectroscopy Method to Characterize Xylem Conduits in Plant Stems
Satadal Dutta, Zhiyi Chen, Elias Kaiser, Priscilla Malcolm Matamoros (2022) · Research
Nursery Container Weed Control with Pinebark Mininuggets
B. Richardson, Charles H. Gilliam, Glenn B. Fain, Glenn Wehtje (2008) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Karyotype analysis and physical mapping of 45S rRNA genes in Hydrangea species by fluorescence in situ hybridization
Katrijn Van Laere, Johan Van Huylenbroeck, Erik Van Bockstaele (2008) · Plant Breeding
In vitro propagation of Hydrangea quercifolia Bartr.
T. K. Sebastian, Charles W. Heuser (1987) · Scientia Horticulturae
Implementation of Soil Moisture Sensor Based Automated Irrigation in Woody Ornamental Production1
William D. Wheeler, Matthew Chappell, Marc W. van Iersel, Paul Thomas (2020) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Spray Penetration and Natural Enemy Survival in Dense and Sparse Plant Canopies Treated with Carbaryl: Implications for Chemical and Biological Control1
Whitney Yeary, Amy Fulcher, Heping Zhu, William E. Klingeman (2018) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Hydrangea quercifolia (Oakleaf hydrangea)
CABI (2019) · CABI Compendium
Cold Hardiness Estimates of Woody Taxa From Cultivated and Wild Collections
Michael A. Dirr, Orville M. Lindstrom, R.J. Lewandowski, Matthew J. Vehr (1993) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture

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.

Other Hydrangea 5 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 55 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.