Hydrangea anomala, the Japanese climbing-hydrangea,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae native to the woodlands of the Himalaya, southern and central China and northern Myanmar.

The fruit is a dry urn-shaped capsule 3–5 mm diameter containing several small winged seeds.

The closely related Hydrangea petiolaris from eastern Siberia, Japan, and Korea, is sometimes treated as a subspecies of H. anomala; it differs in growing larger (to 20 m) and flower corymbs up to 25 cm diameter.

petiolaris has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

[3] ‘Hydrangea’ is derived from Greek and means ‘water vessel’, which is in reference to the shape of its seed capsules.