Iberian Spirea

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Ganoderma australe is saprobic on dead trunk of Spiraea hypericifolia

Shrubs to 1.5 m. Branches erect, spreading; branchlets brownish to gray-brown, slender, terete, glabrous or puberulous when young; buds ovoid, small, with several brownish scales, glabrous or subglabrous, apex acute. Petiole 1–4 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong-obovate or obovate-lanceolate, 1.5–2 × 0.5–0.7 cm, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent on both surfaces, base cuneate, indistinctly 3-veined or pinnately veined, margin entire (or on sterile branchlets obtusely 2- or 3-dentate apically), apex obtuse or acute. Umbels sessile, 1–2.5 cm, 5–11-flowered, with several small, clustered leaves at base; pedicels 0.8–1.8 cm, glabrous or puberulous; bracts very small, caducous. Flowers 5–7 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, glabrous abaxially. Sepals triangular, 1.5–2 mm, erect in fruit, apex acute. Petals white, suborbicular or obovate, 3–3.5 × 3–4 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens ca. 20, slightly shorter than to subequaling petals. Disk annular, 10-lobed. Carpels pubescent or subglabrous; styles somewhat shorter than stamens. Follicles straightly spreading, glabrous; styles terminal on abaxial side, divergent. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jun–Sep.

S. Europe, W. Asia, W. Siberia, ?Nepal, Mongolia, N. China.

3100 m

Sparse forests, thickets, dry sunny slopes. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia); C and SW Asia, SE Europe].