Steeplebush
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated April 2019.
Scientific name: Spiraea tomentosa L.
Common name(s): steeplebush, rosy meadowsweet
Link(s): 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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- last year’s inflorescence, early June
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- pre-flower
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- in flower
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- inflorescence is close and narrow
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- leaves are woolly below
Description:
-leaves are
- simple
- alternate
- toothed
- white or brownish fur on the underside
-tall spires of pink flowers
– may be confused with meadowsweet (S. alba), which also occurs in wild blueberry fields but is not woolly on lower leaf surfaces; see left sidebar on Go Botany webpage
Habitat:
-disturbed sites
-meadows and fields
-marshes
-swamps
Wildlife Benefits:
-attracts butterflies
– food plant for caterpillars of the Columbia silkmoth (Hyalophora columbia), a large saturnid documented from Maine
Sources:
Go Botany. “Spiraea Tomentosa L.” Spiraea Tomentosa (Rosy Meadowsweet, Steeplebush): Go Botany, 2021, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/spiraea/tomentosa/.