Spiraea myrtilloides Rehd.

A deciduous shrub 4 to 8 ft high, with angular downy shoots, becoming glabrous and dark coloured the second year. Leaves oval, mostly rounded at the apex, broadly tapered at the base, entire, or obscurely toothed towards the apex, 1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in. long, about half as much wide, glabrous on both surfaces, glaucous beneath; stalk 1⁄20 in. long. Flowers white, scarcely 1⁄4 in. wide, produced in early June in rounded clusters 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide at the end of short leafy shoots springing from the growths of the previous year; flower-stalks downy. Calyx glabrous except near the flower-stalk, its lobes triangular. Petals roundish obovate. Ovary glabrous.

Native of western and central China; described by Franchet under the illegitimate name S. virgata from specimens collected by Delavay in Yunnan. It was introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in 1908 from W. Szechwan by Wilson, who also collected the type specimen of S. myrtilloides, but probably did not reach this country until some years later, when Forrest sent seeds from Yunnan.

S. myrtilloides has no outstanding qualities as a garden plant and is not in general cultivation. It appears to be nearest in most characters to S. alpina and S. media.