This shrub is native to the mountain ranges of Japan, and extends from the Himalayas through China to Taiwan. In Japan the Hydrangea Hirta species is located in the cool-temperate rainforest belt, otherwise known as the Montane Temperate Rainforest. This rainforest belt had a range of 1200 meters in elevation in Kyushu, at 1,000 - 1800 meters in Shikoku, 800 - 1650 meters in Chubum and the lowlands of south Hokkaido. An example of where this species can be located is in the Tsuga Sieboldii Forest that covers the Pacific side of Honshu and Shikoku where this shrub is a species that helps compose the 20% to 40% shrub cover layer in the lower area of the orotemperate belt.