Hydrangea is an amazing, smart, beautiful, and handsome plant having good personality traits & temperaments. This is a cool and soothing plant that grows and flourishes in cooler climates like that in Himalayan region and North-eastern states of India.
Etymologically Hydrangea is derived from Greek language meaning ‘water vessel’ i.e. Pani Ka Pyala because of its seeds shape being like a capsule. Botanically, this is genus of more than 70 species of flowering plants native to Asia and Americas with clades Tracheophytes, Angiosperms, Eudicots, Asterids, order Comales and family Hydrangeaceae.
This plant has been referred to specifically in the second chapter of seventh class Science Book of NCERT in respect to being as natural indicator of bases and acids in the soil. Hydrangea produces flowers of different colors, depending on the nature of the soil. Acidic soil makes blue colored flowers, whereas in basic soil, the flowers are pink or red. Therefore, gardeners can alter the color of Hydrangea flowers by adjusting the acidic or basic nature of the soil. Colors of Hydrangea’s flowers get changed as per the pH in soil. Soil with a pH of 5.5 or lower will produce blue flowers, a pH of 6.5 or higher will produce pink hydrangeas, and soil in between 5.5 and 6.5 will have purple hydrangeas.
Hydrangea has attracted the attention of English poets, so a number of them have used its flower as a metaphor, personification and in vivid imagery as under:
“In the spring of the year, in the spring of the year,
I walked the road beside my drear,
The imagery of vibrant blooms fading
Mirrors Hydrangeas’ seasonal shift”
Hydrangea flowering plants,
Meaning water vessel in Greek
For such capsule shape circumstance
To hold the water which they seek
When the soil is alkaline, hue
Of the flowers is pink a lot.
When the soil is acidic, blue
Is color most flowers have got
The flowers bloom from early spring
To late fall in large flower heads.
Some look like pompoms and do bring
A showy pep to flower beds.
In Asia and Americas be,
Growing as vine or shrub or tree
(Hamid Siddiqui)
Lajjawati
Urs-e-Aslami
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