Spiraea hypericifolia L.

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Spiraea hypericifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/spiraea/spiraea-hypericifolia/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Glossary

acute
Sharply pointed.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
oblanceolate
Inversely lanceolate; broadest towards apex.
subspecies
(subsp.) Taxonomic rank for a group of organisms showing the principal characters of a species but with significant definable morphological differentiation. A subspecies occurs in populations that can occupy a distinct geographical range or habitat.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Spiraea hypericifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/spiraea/spiraea-hypericifolia/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

This species is represented in cultivation by the following subspecies:

subsp. obovata (Waldst. & Kit.) H. Huber; S. obovata Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.; S. hypericifolia var. obovata (Waldst. & Kit.) Maxim. – A bushy shrub, 5 or 6 ft high, with graceful, arching, twiggy branches, which, when young, are brown and usually covered with fine down, becoming grey with age. Leaves obovate, with a tapering base, and about three teeth at the apex, or none at all, 34 to 114 in. long, 14 to 12 in. wide, of a greyish green, slightly downy beneath, three or five nerves running lengthwise; stalk very short. Flowers pure white, 14 in. across, produced during early May in clusters from the buds of the previous summer’s shoots; each flower on a usually downy stalk about 38 in. long.

Native of N. Spain and S. France. At its best it is a pretty shrub, although not in the very first rank of spiraeas; starting later into growth than several other of its white-flowered allies, it escapes the damaging influence of late spring frosts.

The typical subspecies differs from the above in its narrower, oblanceolate leaves, usually acute at the apex and more or less entire, and in having the petals slightly longer than the stamens (about equalling them in subsp. obovata). It is much more widely distributed than subsp. obovata and does not occur in western and central Europe. It is now uncommon in cultivation, but the form of the species grown in 17th and 18th century gardens as ‘Hypericum frutex’ was probably typical S. hypericifolia. It was apparently so called from the resemblance of its leaves to those of the common St John’s Wort, H. perforatum, and was supposed to have come from Canada.

S. hypericifolia is a parent of the hybrids ‘Arguta’ and ‘Grefsheim’.