Broad Leaf Meadowsweet

Spiraea latifolia (Ait.) Borkh. Handb. Forstbot. 1871. 1803
spiraea salicifolia latifolia Ait. Hort. Kew. 2 : 198. 1789.
Spiraea carpinifolia Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 540. 1809.
Spiraea crenaia Muhl. Cat. 49. 1813. —Torr. Fl. U. S. 482. 1824. Not 5. crenaia X,.
Spiraea alba Wats. Dendr. pi. 133. 1824. Not S. alba DuRoi, 1772.
Spiraea ovata Raf. New Fl. 3 : 65. 1838.
Spiraea heterophylla Raf. New Fl. 3 : 65. 1838.
Spiraea obovata Raf. New Fl. 3 : 66. 1838.
Spiraea belhlehemensis K. Koch, Dendr. 1 : 313. 1869.
Spiraea alba latifolia Dippel, Handb. I^aubh. 3 ; 484. 1893.
A shrub, 1-20 dm. high, branched; bark of the twigs glabrous, chestnut or reddish or the older sometimes nearly black, sooner or later peeling off; petioles 2-4 mm. long; leafblades broadly oblanceolate or obovate, thin, 2-8 cm. long, acute, obtuse or rounded at the apex, tapering at the base, sharply and sometimes doubly serrate, perfectly glabrous or slightly ciliate on the ribs and petioles; inflorescence paniculate, conic, 0.5-2 dm. long and about half as wide ; bracts sometimes ciliate ; hypanthium hemispheric, less than 1 mm. deep, glabrous ; sepals triangular, acute, spreading or slightly reflexed in anthesis, ascending in fruit; petals white or a little pinkish in bud, suborbicular, 1.5 mm. long; follicles oblanceolate, glabrous and shining, 3-4 mm. long; seeds linear-lanceolate, attenuate at each end. Type locality : North America.
Distribution : Newfoundland to North Carolina, western Pennsylvania, and Saskatchewan.

Spiraea latifolia, commonly known as broadleaf meadowsweet, is a shrub in the family Rosaceae. It has often been treated as a variety of Spiraea alba (white or narrowleaf meadowsweet). It is the primary host plant for Hemileuca lucina.