Birchleaf Spirea, Shiny-leaf Spirea, White Spirea         sp-i-REE-a bet-u-li-FOL-i-a

• Deciduous shrub, erect to basally prostrate, to 3 ft (0.9 m) high, sparsely branched, cinnamon-brown scaly bark.  Leaves alternate, simple, 2-9 cm long, broadly ovate, elliptic, to obovate, margin serrate to doubly serrate, base round to broadly wedge-shaped, apex acute to round, light green and smooth above, paler below; petiole about 6 mm long.  Flowers very small, white to pinkish-tinged, in dense flat-topped clusters.  Fruit, small follicle, about 3 mm long, usually 5 per cluster.
• Sun to part shade.  Best in moist soil.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 4      Usually indicated as being native of Asia, but S. b. var. lucida (syn. B. lucida) is native to western North America, from southern British Columbia, southern Saskatchewan, and eastern Alberta, south to eastern Washington and Oregon, into Montana, Idaho, north-central Wyoming, and the Black Hills of South Dakota (Hitchcock and Cronquist, 1973).
• betulifolia: leaves resembling Betula, birch.