Description: Deciduous shrubs.
Leaves simple, toothed or shallowly lobed; stipules absent.
Flowers in dense corymbs, panicles or few-flowered umbels; mostly bisexual. Hypanthium bell-shaped or cup-shaped. Sepals and petals 5. Stamens numerous. Carpels commonly 5, free, superior, 1-locular, ovules 2-many.
Fruit a cluster of small follicles.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 100 species, northern temperate regions. Australia: 2 species (naturalised).
Spiraea was formerly placed in the family Malaceae (now part of Rosaceae), e.g. Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1 (1990). There are various hybrids and cultivars of Spiraea; several taxa have been recorded as naturalised in New South Wales, however these require further investigation.
Text by G.J. Harden & A.N. Rodd
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Spiraea x billiardii,
Spiraea x pseudosalicifolia
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Flowers white; flowers in spring in advance of the leaves | Spiraea prunifolia |
| Flowers pink; flowers in summer with leaves present | Spiraea x billardii |
|
