Keyed Out #043 — Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris

Question 1

The tiny fertile flowers ripen into small dry pots that open by a hole at the top between two persistent horns, rather than into fleshy one-seeded fruit.

Accepted Answer

hydrangea family

Question 2

The leaves are borne in opposite pairs and there is nothing whatever at the base of the stalk — no flaps, no ridge, no scar — where such appendages would sit.

Accepted Answer

Hydrangeaceae

Question 3

Each showy sterile flower round the rim of the head spreads four rounded blades, not one large blade held out on its own.

Accepted Answer

Hydrangea

Question 4

The flowers are massed by the hundred into one broad flat-topped head up to 8 inches (20 cm) across, not carried a few at a time as large solitary blooms or strung in narrow upright sprays.

Accepted Answer

Hydrangea

Question 5

It climbs, gripping bark and masonry with short rootlets thrown out along the stems, and its old wood peels in reddish-brown flakes, instead of standing as a self-supporting bush.

Accepted Answer

Hydrangea anomala

Question 6

The blades are thin and shed every autumn after turning clear yellow, rather than thick, glossy and leathery and held through the winter.

Accepted Answer

Hydrangea anomala