Climbing Native Hydrangea.
This species has for years been known as Decumaria barbara, but due to DNA developments, it has now been placed in the genus Hydrangea. When Linnaeus first named this plant, he had only seen it in European gardens and assumed that it had come from the Barbary coast of northern Africa. Since Dirr's reference still refers to it as "Decumaria", we'll stay with this for the present. Here in zone 8, it can be evergreen in deep shade, and it climbs by aerial or adventitious roots which attach themselves to most textured surfaces such as tree bark, brick walls or wooden fences. I have seen it growing while standing in water, but it does just as well on high ground with adequate moisture. It prefers filtered sun or morning sun and afternoon shade. It flowers in mid spring with 2-3" terminal corymbs of white flowers which lack the showy bracts more familiar to Hydrangea and Schizophragma (which have also been put in the genus Hydrangea.). We found this selection on the South Carolina. side of the Savannah River just below the I-20 bridge at Exit 1. The leaves were in excess of 6" in diameter, but to get this size in cultivation, it must be planted in dense shade, but unfortunately, more shade means less flowers. This particular selection has rather showy flowers compared to the species as one can see by the pictures. It is native to the Deep South, but it is hardy in Zones 5-9, but it will be deciduous in more northerly climes.
Zones 5-8
