Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Rosaceae tribe Spiraeeae
Habit Shrubs, subshrubs, or herbs, perennial (Aruncus); unarmed.
Leaves

alternate, simple or pinnately compound;

stipules absent;

venation pinnate, sometimes palmate.
Flowers

perianth and androecium perigynous;

epicalyx bractlets absent or present;

hypanthium shallowly bowl-shaped, hemispheric, campanulate, patelliform, +/- crateriform, or turbinate;

torus absent, minute, or thickened;

carpels 3–5(or 6)[–8], distinct, free or adnate to hypanthium base, styles +/- terminal, distinct;

ovules 2–5, apical, collateral or clustered.
Fruits

aggregated follicles or achenes (Holodiscus);

styles deciduous or persistent, not elongate.

Rosaceae tribe Spiraeeae
Distribution
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; Eurasia [Introduced widely]
Discussion

Genera 8, species ca. 130 (6 genera, 25 species, including 3 hybrids, in the flora).

The two genera not present in North America north of Mexico are the southeastern European-western Asian Sibiraea Maximowicz (five species) and the Mexican Xerospiraea J. Henrickson (one species).

The base chromosome number for Spiraeeae is x = 9.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae
Subordinate taxa
Aruncus, Holodiscus, Kelseya, Luetkea, Petrophytum, Spiraea
Key
1. Herbs, perennial; flowers unisexual; hypanthia shallowly bowl-shaped.
Aruncus
1. Shrubs or subshrubs; flowers bisexual; hypanthia hemispheric, campanulate, patelliform, +/- crateriform, or turbinate
→ 2
2. Subshrubs; leaves 2–3(–5)-ternate, primarily crowded basally.
Luetkea
2. Shrubs; leaves simple, cauline (tightly clustered in Petrophytum)
→ 3
3. Leaves deciduous, herbaceous, membranous, chartaceous, rarely coriaceous; stems erect, arching, or ascending, sometimes spreading to prostrate in Spiraea
→ 4
3. Leaves persistent, often marcescent, coriaceous; stems prostrate (mat-forming), sometimes ascending or erect in Petrophytum
→ 5
4. Fruits aggregated follicles; inflorescences panicles or corymbiform or racemiform; carpels free; petals greenish, yellowish, white, pink, or purple.
Spiraea
4. Fruits aggregated achenes; inflorescences panicles; carpels adnate to hypanthium base; petals usually white, sometimes pink tinged, rarely pink.
Holodiscus
5. Inflorescences panicles; petals white; stamens 20–40.
Petrophytum
5. Inflorescences: flowers solitary; petals pink to pinkish, often purple tinged; stamens 7–12.
Kelseya
Name authority de Candolle: in A. P de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, in A. Pde Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 2: 541. (1825)
Source FNA vol. 9, p. 398. Treatment author: Luc Brouillet.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Boraginaceae and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers