Hydrangea arborescens (root)

Nomenclature

Hydrangea arborescens L.   Hydrangeaceae  
Standardized common name (English): hydrangea

Botanical Voucher Specimen

Hydrangea arborescens L. Source: Images courtesy of the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden	Hydrangea arborescens L. Source: Images courtesy of the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden	Hydrangea arborescens L. Source: Images courtesy of the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden

Organoleptic Characteristics

Inodorous; taste sweetish, becoming slightly acrid. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918)

Macroscopic Characteristics

Hydrangea is a shrub 5 to 6 feet high with weak twigs, slender leaf stems, and thin leaves, the latter 3 to 6 inches long, oval or heart-shaped, and sharply toothed. The flowers, which are small and greenish white, are produced from June to July in loose, broad clusters. Sometimes the plant will flower a second time early in the fall. The stem has a peculiar tendency to peel off in several successive layers of thin, different-colored bark, hence the name "seven-bark." The root is roughly branched and when fresh is very juicy, but when dry it is very hard and tough. Source: American Medicinal Plants of Commercial Importance (1930) Rhizome cylindrical, usually cut into pieces from 3 to 10 cm. in length and from 3 to 20 mm. in diameter; externally light brown to yellowish brown with a pinkish tinge, longitudinally wrinkled, marked by few elliptical lenticels and occasional prominent buds, short branches or stem scars; from the lower surface arise a few coarse fibrous roots; fracture tough, splintery; internally yellowish-white or light brown, bark thin, easily separable from the distinctly radiate wood which surrounds a prominent whitish pith. Roots attaining a length of 25 cm. and a thickness of 2 mm., irregularly bent and branching, otherwise resembling the rhizome with the exception of the pith being absent. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Source: PlantaPhile Source: PlantaPhile

Microscopic Characteristics

Under the microscope, sections of the rhizome of Hydrangea show a gray cork of a few rows of tabular cells, a cortex made up chiefly of parenchyma containing starch, large cells containing raphides and small isolated groups of stone cells or sclerenchymatous fibers; a woody cylinder composed of slender wedges made up of prominent tracheae with reticulate thickenings and tracheids separated by medullary rays one to three cells wide, the cells of which are filled with small starch grains; pith of large polygonal cells with prominent simple pores. The powder is light yellowish-brown, containing irregular fragments consisting of strongly lignified tracheae, tracheids and medullary ray cells; stone cells and sclerenchymatous fibers from 0.05 to 0.2 mm. in length, strongly lignified, the walls marked by simple and branching pores; raphides numerous, from 0.07 to 0.13 mm. in length; starch grains mostly single, more or less ellipsoidal, occasionally with a prominent central cleft and varying from 0.002 to 0.01 mm. in diameter. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Parenchyma with large raphides of calcium oxalate observed at 400x with Acidified Chloral Hydrate Glycerol Solution. Source: Elan M. Sudberg, Alkemist Laboratories Large medullary ray observed at 400x with Acidified Chloral Hydrate Glycerol Solution. Source: Elan M. Sudberg, Alkemist Laboratories