Meadowsweet
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated February 2018.
Scientific name: Spiraea alba Du Roi var. latifolia (Aiton) Dippel; old Spiraea latifolia (Aiton) Borkh.
Common name(s): meadowsweet, white meadowsweet
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile, NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- mowed plant, early June
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- early June with last year’s fruits
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- leaf detail with last year’s fruit
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- in prune blueberry field
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- in flower, mid-July
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- flowers can be pinkish
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- flowers can be white
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- open inflorescence
Description:
– flowering perennial shrub
– generally flowers late June to August in ME
-Erect, woody, shrub 2′-6′ with reddish stems
-Leaves lance-shaped
- alternate
- finely toothed
- 1″-2″ long and 1/4″-1.25″ wide
-Terminal inflorescence usually pyramidal shaped
- flowers 5 part
- white to pink 1/16″-1/4″ wide in dense groups
– may be confused with steeplebush (S. tomentosa), which has a woolly underside to leaves and also occurs in wild blueberry fields; see left sidebar on Go Botany webpage
Habitat:
-swamps
-marshes
-thickets
-forest openings
-summits
Source(s):
Hansen, R.W., S.B. Hansen and E.A. Osgood. 1991. Reproductive phenologies of selected flowering plants in eastern Maine forests. ME Agric. Exp. Station Tech. Bull. 143. 17 pp.
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.