Spiraea alba - (image 1 of 6)
Taxonomy
Family: Rosaceae
Habitat
Marshy meadows and peaty or boggy soils. Bogs, meadows, shorelines, thickets, and low ground.
Associates
These were found growing with Phlox glaberrima, Pycnanthemum virginianum, and Thelypteris palustris.
Distribution
Newfoundland and Quebec west to Alberta, south to NC, MO, and SD.
Morphology
Small woody shrub to 2 m. Leaves alternate, simple, finely serrate, glabrous, more than 4 times longer than wide, stipules lacking. Flowers small, in a branched panicle, the branches pubescent; petals white, sometimes marked with pink; hypanthium shallow; ovary superior. Fruit a glabrous follicle.
Notes
Flowers mid June to mid September
Wetland indicator: Facultative Wetland +
This species is not often cultivated, unlike many other species in the genus Spiraea.
References
Crow, Garrett E and C. Barre Hellquist. 2000. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of
Northeastern North America
Vol. 1. Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms: Dicotyledons
The University of Wisconsin Press. Madison, WI
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of
Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
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Michael Hough © 2005 |