Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Spiraea lucida Dougl.; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 : 172, as a synonym
1832. —Greene, Pittonia 2 : 221. 1892.
Spiraea betulifolia Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 : 172. 1832. Not 5. betuUfolia Pall. 1784. Spiraea corymbosa lucida Zabel, Handb. I,aubh. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 157. 1903.
A low shrub, with creeping rootstock ; stems and branches erect, often dying down annually to near the base, 3-10 dm. high; bark of the twigs glabrous, rather light-brown, the outer layers sooner or later peeling off and then becoming darker ; petioles 4-8 mm. long ; blades of the lower leaves obovate, of the upper oval, often acutish, 2-6 cm. long, thin, glabrous throughout, more or less shining above, paler beneath, coarsely serrate or incised ; inflorescence flat-topped, 3-10 cm. broad; hypanthium hemispheric, glabrous, 1.5 mm. deep, light-green ; sepals triangialar, acute, about 1 mm. long, erect or merely spreading; petals white, orbicular, about 2 mm. long ; filaments slender, about twice as long as the petals; follicles glabrous, shining, oblanceolate, about 3.5 mm. long, their beaks 1 mm. long; seeds linear-lanceolate, attenuate at each end, 2.5-3 mm. long.
Type locality : Valleys of the Rocky Mountains.
Distribution : In the mountains, from British Columbia to Oregon, Wyoming, and Saskatchewan .
- bibliographic citation
- Frederick Vernon Coville, Nathaniel Lord Britton, Henry Allan Gleason, John Kunkel Small, Charles Louis Pollard, Per Axel Rydberg. 1908. GROSSULARIACEAE, PLATANACEAE, CROSSOSOMATACEAE, CONNARACEAE, CALYCANTHACEAE, and ROSACEAE (pars). North American flora. vol 22(3). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
