Spiraea alba var. alba

Native

Moist to wet. Meadows, bogs, swamps, thickets, streambanks, shorelines. Full sun.

June to August

White, rarely pinkish

3′ to 6′

This is a 3′ to 6′ tall, erect, perennial, usually unbranched shrub with a woody root. It may form tall, dense thickets.

The bark is gray or reddish-brown and smooth. When it ages the bark becomes papery and peels off in fine strips.

Young twigs are green, leafy, and covered with minute, fine, soft hairs. Later they become hairless and develop dull brown or yellowish-brown bark. They do not have thorns.

Buds are long-pointed and silky. Leaf scars are raised and have just 1 bundle scar.

The leaves are alternate, hairless, crowded, and deciduous. They are narrowly oblong to narrowly lance-shaped, unlobed, 3 to 4 times as long as wide, 2″ to 2¾″ long, and ⅜″ to ¾″ wide. They are attached to the twig on short leaf stalks. The upper surface is medium green and hairless. The lower surface is pale green and hairless. The margins have fine, sharp teeth.

The inflorescence is an erect, branched, cluster of many small flowers at the end of the stem or a branch. It is pyramid-shaped, longer than wide, 2″ to 6″ long. The flower stems and flower cups are minutely woolly.

The flowers are ¼″ wide and slightly fuzzy. They have 5 white, rarely pinkish, petals, 5 light green sepals, and 20 or more long stamens. The sepals are obtuse and spreading, but do not bend backward when the flowers are fully open. The petals are much longer than the sepals.

The fruit is a group of 5 dry, brown, hairless pods with short beaks. They contain 2 to 5 seeds.

Broadleaf meadowsweet (Spiraea alba var. latifolia) twigs are purplish-brown or reddish-brown. Twig color, however, is an unreliable indicator because the color is variable. Leaves are broader, only 2 to 3 times as long as wide. Leaf margins have coarser, more blunt teeth. The inflorescence is hairless or nearly hairless. The sepals are acute. It is found in moist to dry locations.

Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa) is a much shorter plant, usually less than 3′ tall. The leaves have a dense, reddish-brown fuzz on the underside. The sepals are not spreading but bend backward when the flowers are fully open. The flower petals are pink or rose-purple. The fruit is hairy.