Elm-leaf spiraea

Spiraea chamaedryfolia, the elm-leaf spiraea or germander meadowsweet, is a deciduous shrub in the rose family (Rosaceae) reaching 1 to 1.5 meters in height with arching, brownish to red-brown, often angular branchlets that bear several persistent ridges below the leaf bases. The leaves are alternate, simple, oblong to lance-shaped, 40 to 60 millimeters long and 10 to 30 millimeters wide, with sharply doubly serrate or incised margins recalling those of an elm leaf - the feature that gives the species its name - and a short petiole 4 to 7 millimeters long; the underside is paler and sparsely pubescent on the veins. Small white flowers, each 6 to 9 millimeters across with five rounded petals and many stamens far exceeding the petals, are arranged in dense corymbose to subumbellate clusters at the ends of short lateral branches, flowering from late spring through summer (May to September). The fruit is a small dehiscent follicle. The species is widely distributed in mixed forests and forest clearings of South-Eastern Europe and temperate Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Russia, typically at elevations of 600 to 1,000 meters, and is commonly cultivated as an ornamental.