Germander Meadowsweet

Shrubs 1–1.5 m tall. Branchlets brownish or red-brown, turning gray-brown when old, slender, sometimes flexuose, slightly angled, glabrous; buds long ovoid, with 2 scales, glabrous or sparsely puberulous on scale margins, apex acuminate. Petiole 4–7 mm, glabrous or sparsely pilose; leaf blade broadly ovate, 2–4.5 × 1–3 mm, tufted pubescent in vein axils abaxially, glabrous adaxially, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin minutely sharply serrate and doubly serrate (or on sterile branchlets sometimes incised doubly serrate), apex acute. Racemes pedunculate, umbellate, 2–4 × 2–3 mm, 5–12-flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous; pedicels 6–10 mm; bracts linear, 2–3 mm, glabrous, caducous. Flowers 6–9 mm in diam. Hypanthium broadly campanulate, glabrous abaxially. Sepals ovate-triangular, 1.5–2.5 × 1.5–2 mm, reflexed in fruit, apex acute. Petals white, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 2.5–3.5 × 2–3 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse or somewhat incised. Stamens 35–50, longer than petals. Disk undulate annular. Carpels puberulous on adaxial suture; styles shorter than stamens. Follicles erect, appressed pubescent; styles terminal on adaxial side, slightly spreading. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Sep.

Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; Europe].

Slopes in mixed forests, forest clearings; 600--1000 m.

Spiraea ussuriensis Pojarkova.