2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Spirea (Latin Spiraea) - a spectacular ornamental shrub, which is a member of the Pink family.
Description
Spirea is an ornamental and deciduous shrub, the height of which varies from fifteen centimeters to two and a half meters. The horse system of this plant is shallow and usually fibrous. Spread erect branches, endowed with peeling bark in the longitudinal direction, can be either creeping or ascending or recumbent, and their color ranges from light to dark brownish shades. And young shoots are pubescent or naked and boast a brown, slightly reddish, as well as yellowish or green color.
The shape of petiole and without stipules of successive leaves can vary from round to bizarre lanceolate-linear. All leaflets are double-serrate or simple-toothed and three or five-lobed.
The inflorescences of the spirea blooming in the spring are sessile or almost sessile umbrellas or magnificent corymbose tassels with leaf rosettes located near the bases. In the varieties blooming in the summer season, the inflorescences fold into complex or unpretentious shields, located at the tips of shoots or short leafy twigs. And in late-flowering varieties, inflorescences are usually located at the tips of long leafy shoots, broadly pyramidal, as well as elliptical or narrow-cylindrical panicles.
The flowers of the spirea are usually bisexual, however, sometimes dioecious specimens are also found. The flowers of the spring-blooming varieties are usually white, the summer blooms are white to pink-red, and the flowers of the late-blooming varieties boast luxurious purple hues (with rare exceptions). All flowers have five petals - they are oblong and at the same time slightly rounded, and their length exceeds the length of the sepals.
Spirea fruits are multi-seeded leaflets that open first along the inner and then along the outer seam. And brownish winged, lanceolate and rather flat seeds reach 0.5 mm in width, and their length ranges from one and a half to two millimeters.
Where grows
Spirea is found mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, the boundaries of its distribution range pass through the Mexican territory, and in Asia - along the Himalayas.
Varieties
Japanese spirea. It is an incredibly spectacular shrub, the young shoots of which are always tomentose, and the old ones are bare. The height of these bushes ranges from one to one and a half meters, and their ovoid-oblong leaves are green on top, and gray-gray below. And such a spirea blooms with amazingly beautiful reddish-pinkish flowers gathering in paniculate-corymbose inflorescences.
Spirea of the argument. These sprawling bushes from one and a half to two meters in height boast a rather unusual shape - their blooming drooping twigs are very reminiscent of a foamy waterfall flowing along their entire length, formed by a huge number of fragrant snow-white flowers.
Spirea Douglas. This name hides a one and a half meter bush, endowed with pubescent and straight shoots of reddish-brownish shades. The length of its oblong-lanceolate leaves ranges from three to ten centimeters, and luxurious dark pink flowers form narrow apical paniculate-pyramidal inflorescences.
Application
Spirea has long been used in forestry, landscaping, ornamental gardening and the creation of luxurious hedges. It has proved itself quite well as a soil-strengthening plant. Among other things, many varieties of spiraea are excellent melliferous plants and valuable sources of highly effective medicinal raw materials.
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