hydrangea
noun
Example Sentences
Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2022 If plants had personalities, Frill Ride hydrangea would be the bubbly extrovert at a summer garden party, exuberantly greeting friends and neighbors with a cheerful burst of color. Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Mar. 2022 Jesús Carcamo, 25, left his lucky Dodgers hat there at the base of a wreath of blue roses, white hydrangea and palm-sized white orchids placed by the Hollywood Historic Trust. Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2022 Some flowering shrubs, such as bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) and many kinds of rhododendrons, are only marginally hardy in Chicago and carry their flower buds through the winter. Beth Botts, chicagotribune.com, 31 Oct. 2020 Due to genetics, a few hydrangea cultivars do not turn blue, even in the right conditions. Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 29 June 2022 Leaftier caterpillars taking up residence in your hydrangea? Ariel Cheung, Chicago Tribune, 18 May 2022 Anemone, astilbe, fern, hosta, oakleaf hydrangea, ligularia, rhododendron, toad lily, and woodland phlox thrive in many mainland U.S. regions; ajuga, clivia, tropical gingers and bromeliads are good choices for the warmest climates. Jessica Damiano, BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2022 Back in Europe, Siebold named a variety of hydrangea after his wife. Rob Goss, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 May 2022 See More Word History
borrowed from New Latin, genus name, from Greek hydr- hydr- + New Latin -angēa, feminine derivative from Greek angeîon "vessel, container" — more at angio-
Note: The genus name dates from linnaeus's Species plantarum, vol. 1 (1753), p. 397. Linnaeus took the name from Jan Frederik Gronovius and John Clayton's Flora Virginica, pars prima (Leiden, 1739), p. 50. Since the 19th century the name Hydrangea, taken to mean "water vessel," is said to refer to the "cup-like form of the seed-capsule" (hence Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, 1899). However, Gronovius, presumably the immediate author of the text, gives no indication of the name's significance. He describes the fruit of Hydrangea arborescens as "a small two-chambered vessel filled with tiny seeds, crowned with two small threads or little horns bent backward" ("… vasculo parvo bicapsulari seminibus minutissimis repleto, duobus parvis filamentis seu corniculis recurvis cornato"). This accords well with pictures of the plant's small seed capsules, though it takes some imagination to see an individual capsule as a water vessel.
circa 1753, in the meaning defined above
Medical Definition
hydrangea
noun