I'm here to identify more species in a personal project of mine. First I identify a plant, by myself or with your help, down to the species name (Binomial name) then I do a lot of research on that species to confirm it is truly the species I found and to learn more about it. As of today 14/01/2019, I've identified 395 species.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

P.S.: If it is not possible to identify down to species with the pictures here, let me know!

Found in Canada in Quebec/New-Brunswick, but it is a cultivated plant

Hydrangea macrophylla

Or maybe Hydrangea paniculata Quick Fire? Most H. macrophylla would not be hardy in that area.

Thank Paul!

Paniculatas have panicle shaped blooms. On a young plant though, the shape of the blooms may not be a "perfect" panicle or triangle.

luis_pr said:Paniculatas have panicle shaped blooms. On a young plant though, the shape of the blooms may not be a "perfect" panicle or triangle.

A lot of pictures of Quick Fire show it as having a lacecap appearance, as in the database here on NGA and from Google:

https://www.google.com/search?...

Is it just age of the plant though as opposed to the stage of opening of the inflorescence? The other thing I wondered about was the change in colour but one of the supplier websites said that whether they change depends on the environment and they may stay the same colour.

Luis_pr do you have any idea what else it could be? New Brunswick/Quebec are typically too cold for macrophyllas.

It may also be a vibirnum. Opulus for example has "similar" blooms. VBs are hardy to z4-ish.

NB covers z6 thru z3 so some areas (z6 for example) would be ok for macs, especially rebloomers. Or nonrebloomers might be ok in colder NB zones (6, 5) with winter protection.

Or better yet, paniculatas or arborescens (Annabelle-like hydrangeas, some of which hace lacecap blooms). These two are very cold hardy!

Qf blooms may be a tad variable in form (not perfectly identical from, say, "regular" Qf to another Qf or to Little QF. The blooms can be messy, disorganized looking too. 😊

Luis I wonder if you are looking at a map with Canadian hardiness zones rather than the USDA equivalent because there's no USDA zone 6 as far as I know in Quebec or New Brunswick, see USDA equivalents for Canada here:

http://planthardiness.gc.ca/im...

I had ruled out Viburnum because the ones I looked at, including opulus, all had five "petals" (bracts) instead of four like the ID plant.

You can rule out vibirnums based on when Nightcrow's shrub blooms: if it blooms in the Spring, it may be a vibirnum; if it blooms in the Summer, it may be a paniculata/arborescens hydrangea.

Note: I wanted to add that arborescens hydrangeas bloom in the Spring here but in Quebec, they will do so much, much later, maybe closer to the start of Summer.