A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Spiraea yunnanensis Franch.

Modern name

Spiraea yunnanensis Franch.

Synonyms

S. sinobrahuica W. W. Sm.

A deciduous shrub 4 to 7 ft high; young shoots covered with a thick tawny down; buds white-woolly. Leaves broadly ovate or obovate, lobed and toothed at the upper part, entire and tapered towards the stalk, 12 to 118 in. long, from two-thirds to nearly as much wide, dull green and downy above, grey-tawny and velvety beneath; stalk 116 to 18 in. long. Flowers creamy white, 13 in. wide, produced during June in rounded clusters 1 in. across at the end of short leafy twigs. There are ten to twenty flowers in a cluster, each borne on a slender downy stalk. Petals roundish. Calyx downy like the flower-stalk. Stamens twenty.

Native of Yunnan, China; discovered by Père Delavay and introduced by Forrest, who found it at upwards of 10,000 ft altitude, varying apparently in height from 3 to 8 ft. It is very distinct in the tawny down that covers the young shoots, under-surface of the leaves, flower-stalks and calyx; also in the goodly size (for a spiraea) of the blossoms. It is evidently nearly akin to S. chinensis.


Genus

Spiraea

Other species in the genus