Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Cornales Dumort.
 Subordinate Taxa
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Hydrangeaceae Dumort.
 Description

Herbs or softly woody shrubs, rarely climbers. Lvs usually opposite, rarely alternate, simple; stipules 0. Fls in cymes, panicles or corymbs, regular, 4–5-merous, usually ☿, sometimes sterile with enlarged petal-like sepals. Calyx 5-merous; tube ± adnate to ovary; sepals imbricate. Petals 4–5, free, contorted or valvate. Stamens twice as many as petals or numerous; anthers basi- or medifixed, 2-locular. Ovary 2–6-locular or incompletely so, 1/2 to fully inferior; styles as many as loculi, free or partly connate; ovules numerous on axile or intrusive parietal placentas, anatropous. Fr. a loculicidal capsule; seeds numerous, small, sometimes winged and reticulate.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

 Biostatus
Exotic
Number of species and named hybrids in New Zealand within Hydrangeaceae Dumort.
CategoryNumber
Exotic: Fully Naturalised2
Exotic: Casual2
Total4
 Bibliography
Cronquist, A. 1988: The evolution and classification of flowering plants. The New York Botanic Gardens, New York.
Kubitzki, K. 2004: VI Flowering Plants. Dicotyledons: Celestrales, Oxalidales, Rosales, Cornales, Ericales. Kubitzki, K. (ed.) The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Spinger-Verlag, Berlin. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Mabberley, D.J. 2008: Mabberley's plant book, a portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses. Edition 3. Cambridge University Press.