Hydrangea vinicolor Chun — Wineleaf hydrangea

Introduction

Wineleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea vinicolor) is a southern Chinese woody shrub of Hydrangea subg. Dichroa sect. Chinenses. Although most modern taxonomic backbones place it in synonymy under H. lingii, Tree TSAR recognizes it as a distinct species because its historical morphological and geographic identity is reinforced by modern phylogenetic evidence. Current POWO continues to list H. vinicolor as a heterotypic synonym of H. lingii.

Chun described H. vinicolor in 1954 from Guangdong material. The traditional species concept differs from H. lingii in several correlated traits rather than a single quantitative character. Plants are generally larger, about 1–2.5 m tall, with longer lanceolate to narrowly elliptic leaves, more secondary veins, broader and often decurrent leaf bases, and stout petioles expanded toward the stem. The floral differences are especially noteworthy: vinicolor has relatively long lanceolate calyx lobes and larger, narrower white petals, whereas lingii has much shorter ovate-triangular calyx lobes and smaller pale-yellow broadly obovate petals.

Its historical distribution also differs. The old vinicolor concept occupies a southern Chinese arc through Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guizhou, with the original material centered on the Mei/Meixian region of Guangdong. Herbarium material identified as H. vinicolor from that district survives in major collections.

Comparison with Hydrangea lingii

Character	**Hydrangea lingii**	**Hydrangea vinicolor**
Habit	Shrub ca. 0.7–1.7 m	Shrub ca. 1–2.5 m
Leaves	Narrowly elliptic, ca. 5–9 × 1.5–2.5 cm	Lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, ca. 8–15 × 2–4.5 cm, sometimes longer
Lateral veins	Usually 5–6 pairs	Usually 6–7 pairs
Leaf base	Cuneate	Broadly cuneate to obtuse, often decurrent
Petiole	Ca. 5–10 mm	Stouter, basally expanded and nearly stem-clasping
Calyx lobes	Ovate-triangular, ca. 0.5–0.7 mm	Lanceolate, ca. 1.5–2 mm, elongating in fruit
Petals	Pale yellow, broadly obovate, ca. 2.5–3 mm	White, narrowly elliptic, ca. 3.5–4.5(–5.5) mm
Historical geographic center	Primarily Fujian	Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guizhou
Yang et al. (2024)	Separate sampled lineage	Separate sampled lineage; did not group with H. lingii
Tree TSAR	Accepted	Accepted

The broad Flora of China treatment merged these character ranges under H. lingii, producing a species description extending from Fujian westward to Guizhou and encompassing much of the morphology of both original taxa. That treatment subsequently became entrenched in major global backbones.

Yang et al. (2024) provide the strongest reason to reopen the issue. Their expanded sampling included material representing H. vinicolor and H. lingii separately. They state explicitly that H. vinicolor, despite its treatment as a synonym in Flora of China, did not form a monophyletic group with H. lingii. Their figure identifies the vinicolor accession with an asterisk attached to the H. lingii label, allowing the two sampled concepts to be distinguished.

That result is especially persuasive because it was obtained independently of the older morphological rationale for recognizing vinicolor. Historical taxonomy and plastid phylogeny therefore point in the same direction. Tree TSAR accepts H. vinicolor as a species while retaining a clear review trigger: dense nuclear genomic sampling from Fujian through Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Guizhou could still demonstrate introgression or extensive gene flow inconsistent with species-level independence.

Recent cytological work adds another biological datapoint. Chen et al. (2025) reported H. vinicolor as diploid with 2n = 2x = 36 and approximately 2C = 3.11 pg. As with H. stenophylla, this does not resolve the species boundary, but it provides independent characterization of germplasm being maintained under the vinicolor name.

The common name wineleaf hydrangea reflects both the epithet vinicolor and the characteristic dark wine- to purplish coloration reported from the leaves and shoots, especially in dried material. It also avoids implying that living foliage is permanently bright purple.

Horticultural and Agricultural Uses

Wineleaf hydrangea remains obscure in horticulture. Its narrow leaves, dark-toned shoots, and small fertile-flowered inflorescences give it a more restrained ornamental character than familiar garden hydrangeas, but authenticated germplasm could be valuable to specialist collections and breeding programs seeking greater representation of wild Chinese Hydrangea diversity.

Its current horticultural invisibility is partly taxonomic: material may circulate as H. lingii because most contemporary databases synonymize the name. Any cultivated accession with reliable Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, or Guizhou provenance should therefore be compared with the traditional vinicolor diagnosis before being assigned automatically to lingii.

No major agricultural use is documented.

Conservation Concerns

No formal global IUCN assessment was located under Hydrangea vinicolor, unsurprisingly because most modern sources do not accept it as an independent species.

This creates an important conservation blind spot. Under broad H. lingii, the combined lineage appears widespread across southeastern and south-central China. Under Tree TSAR's two-species treatment, H. vinicolor has its own southern Chinese distribution and should be assessed independently. The taxon's actual population continuity, abundance, and degree of contact with H. lingii remain poorly documented.

Future population-genomic work would therefore serve both systematic and conservation purposes by determining whether the geographically distributed vinicolor populations form a cohesive lineage and whether zones of contact with lingii show introgression.

Additional Information

Plants of the World Online — Hydrangea lingii (opens in a new tab): — Current backbone treatment places H. vinicolor in synonymy here; Tree TSAR differs.

iPlant — Hydrangea vinicolor (opens in a new tab): — Chinese database record showing the modern synonymization under H. lingii while preserving access to the historical name.

NCBI Taxonomy — Hydrangea vinicolor (opens in a new tab): Maintains the molecularly sampled name separately within sect. Chinenses; NCBI taxonomy itself is not authoritative for botanical acceptance.

References and Further Reading

Chen S, Lu H, Liu H, Si M, Cai M, Zhang Q, Yang Y, Zhang D (2025) Karyotype analysis and genome-size evaluation of native Hydrangea taxa in China. HortScience 60(7): 1021–1025. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18540-25 (opens in a new tab)

Chun WY (1954) A census and preliminary study of the Chinese Hydrangeoideae. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 3(2): 101–205. https://cpni.ibiodiversity.net/26764 (opens in a new tab)

Hoo G (1951) Some new species and additional descriptions of Fukien plants. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 1(2): 193–198. https://www.jse.ac.cn/EN/Y1951/V1/I2/193 (opens in a new tab)

Wei Z, Bartholomew B (2001) Hydrangea. In: Wu ZY, Raven PH (eds.) Flora of China, vol. 8. Science Press, Beijing & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, pp. 411–422. https://www.iplant.cn/foc/pdf/Hydrangea.pdf (opens in a new tab)

Wei ZF (1994) A revision of the genus Hydrangea in China. Guihaia 14(2): 101–121. https://www.guihaia-journal.com/gxzwen/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?falg=1&file_no=199402002&quarter_id=2&year_id=1994 (opens in a new tab)

Yang X, Xue T, Gao T, Liang Y, Smets EF, Gadagkar SR, Yu S (2024) An updated infrageneric classification based on phylogenomics and character evolution in Hydrangea (Hydrangeaceae). Taxon 73(2): 503–518. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.13158 (opens in a new tab)