Deutzia longifolia Franch.

A deciduous shrub 4 to 6 ft high; young shoots sparsely scurfy; afterwards glabrous, bright brown, peeling. Leaves narrowly oval-lanceolate, rounded or tapered at the base, slender-pointed, finely toothed, 11⁄2 to 5 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. wide, upper surface dull greyish green, sprinkled with pale, flat, usually five- or six-rayed, stellate hairs, under-surface greyish white, covered with a close felt-like layer of eight- to twelve-rayed stellate hairs, the midrib and chief veins furnished on each side with few to many white simple hairs. Flowers in corymbose panicles, 2 to 3 in. long and wide, produced in June at the end of short two- to six-leaved twigs; each flower is about 1 in. across, pale purplish rose, paling at the margins of the petals. The wings of the inner stamens are deeply bilobed at the top, the anthers set in the notch; calyx-lobes lincar-oblong, persistent, covered like the calyx-tube and flower-stalks with pale starry scurf. Fruit 1⁄4 in. across. Bot. Mag., t. 8493.

Native of W. China; introduced by Wilson in 1905. This is one of the finest of the Chinese deutzias, both in size of flower and beauty of tint. It is closely allied to D. discolor, but is distinguished by the longer, narrower leaves, more distinctly veined beneath, and especially, by the simple hairs along the midrib – absent in discolor-, the wings of the inner stamens are deeply bilobed in discolor, but the lobes do not reach up to or above the anther as in longifolia.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

var. farreri – This is included in D. discolor by Zaikonnikova. Mr Airy Shaw, in discussing the Farrer introduction (Bot. Mag., t.9532), admitted that it disagreed with the typical state of D. longifolia in the colour of its flowers and the number of styles, but remarked that D. discolor (1887) and D. albida (1893) are probably no more than forms of the polymorphic D. longifolia (1885). So Farrer’s deutzia is best left under D. longifolia.

† D. calycosa Rehd. – This species was described by Rehder from specimens collected by Delavay in Yunnan. He compared it to D. longifolia, to which it is closely allied, differing in its relatively broader, usually short-acuminate leaves and some minor characters. The colour of the flowers is also different, being white or light rosy pink, or white flushed with pink. It was introduced in 1981 by the joint Chinese and British expedition to the Tali range of Yunnan (Cangshan) and has already flowered. It promises to be one of the more garden-worthy of recent introductions from China. Two good seedlings at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Eire, will be propagated.