Russian spiraea

Spiraea media, known as Russian spiraea or mid spiraea, is a deciduous shrub in the rose family Rosaceae growing 1 to 2 meters tall with erect to spreading reddish-brown branches that are angled or grooved when young. The alternate ovate to elliptic leaves are 2 to 5 centimeters long, with coarsely toothed margins in the upper half and entire below, dull green above and glaucous beneath. Numerous small five-petaled white flowers about 8 millimeters across are borne in short dense corymbs at the tips of leafy lateral shoots in late spring, producing dry dehiscent follicles. The species is native to a broad band of montane and steppe habitats from central and eastern Europe through the Caucasus, central Asia, Siberia, Mongolia and northern China to the Russian Far East, where it occupies forest margins, rocky slopes and ravines. It is widely cultivated as a hardy ornamental.