Wednesday, October 15, 2008

100 Species Challenge (#2): Mophead Hydrangeas



2. Hydrangea Macrophylla: also known as "Mophead Hydrangeas." We see these in a lot of yards in the summer here; I especially love the rich blue ones.

These always fascinated me as a child because they change color depending on the soil composition (the amount of aluminum in the soil determines the color). Even though I know it has to do with soil composition, I still find myself thinking of these flowers as ladies who like to change the color of their dress depending on their moods (and the "mophead" designation for some varieties makes me think of ladies with curly hair!). Sometimes you see shades of both pink and blue on the same plant.

Note: I didn't get off to a roaring start with my cataloged list of 100 local species this past summer. I took a lot of photos but haven't had time to identify and/or write about most of them. Hoping to have some time to take some autumnal photos soon, but thought I would add this one culled from pictures I took in July.

2 comments:

Erin said...

I love them too. So pretty! Really, anything somewhere along the blue to purple spectrum tends to get my attention...

Beth said...

Me too. There are so few "true blue" flowers in the world, at least in our part of the world. I know these are pretty common garden-variety flowers, but I love them!