page_title: Hydrangea radiata
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Hydrangea radiata / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Inflorescence of Hydrangea radiata at the park of Villa Serra, Genova, Italy
context_page_description: Hydrangea radiata is an attractive, deciduous shrub up to 3 m tall; its natural range is limited to the southern Appalachians, where it is fairly common. Its common names—silverleaf hydrangea or snowy hydrangea—reflect its distinctive foliage which is dark green on top and silvery white below; the sharply contrasting foliar colors makes this shrub conspicuous at a distance, especially in a breeze.
context_section_description: The inflorescence of silver hydrangea is a corymb. The showy, sterile flowers (white to near white) and are comparatively abundant (2-15 per bloom) and are borne around the periphery of the corymb; they are usually greater than 1 cm in diameter.
  The leaves of silverleaf hydrangea are large (8 to 15 cm long), opposite, serrated, ovate, and deciduous. The upper leaf surface has hairs along the veins. The lower leaf surface is densely covered with felt-like hairs, appearing bright white or silver; when viewed under magnification, these hairs are without tubercles (ashy hydrangea has numerous tubercles). These hairs are so thick that the lower surface of the leaf 's epidermis cannot be seen.
caption: Inflorescence of Hydrangea radiata
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D50", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:29 18:52:08", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2666", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6288", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:06:30 15:36:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:06:30 15:36:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "47/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "60", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2345", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1761", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3008", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2000", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2518", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "90", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "c206aa24a9757144144ac21aa0ae5881"}