Species
+

Spiraea alba Du Roi

Meadowsweet, Pale Bridewort, Weißer Spierstrauch (DE), White Meadowsweet

Climate known 59 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Spiraea alba, commonly known as meadowsweet, white meadowsweet, narrowleaf meadowsweet, the botanical pale bridewort, or pipestem, is native to the wet soils of the Allegheny Mountains and other portions of eastern North America, but is currently endangered in the state of Missouri. It is naturalized in other parts of the world.

Text from Wikipedia, “Spiraea alba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Spiraea

Spiraea, sometimes spelled spirea in common names, and commonly known as meadowsweets or steeplebushes, is a genus of about 80 to 100 species of shrubs in the family Rosaceae. They are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with the greatest diversity in eastern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Spiraea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Du Roi
Native to
Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan +32
Wild records
1816 in range· 462 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1173mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 110 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1173 mm a year, wettest October at 110 mm, driest February at 76 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Spiraea alba f. paniculata (Aiton) C.K.Schneid.; Spiraea alba subsp. alba; Spiraea ciliata Raf.; Spiraea ciliata var. multiflora Raf.; Spiraea ciliata var. petiolata Raf. and 11 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (835 mm of 1173 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 27.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1173 mm a year, wettest October at 110 mm, driest February at 76 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1173 mm a year at the habitat, 835 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 110 mm, driest February at 76 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 849 mm to 1482 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -16.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -16.7 °C, the absolute minimum -27.2 °C, about 142 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -11.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -16.3 °C to -6.4 °C), warmest day 24.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -3 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul; mean night from -12 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1173 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1480 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost25.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 8–38RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1480 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-3 / -8–1-1 / -6–33 / 0–811 / 6–1417 / 12–2022 / 18–2525 / 21–2824 / 21–2619 / 17–2213 / 10–166 / 3–100 / -4–4
Night °C-12 / -16–-6-11 / -14–-5-6 / -9–-21 / -1–47 / 5–1013 / 11–1516 / 14–1816 / 13–1812 / 9–146 / 3–80 / -4–3-7 / -12–-3
Rain mm83 / 32–11076 / 29–10485 / 45–12494 / 66–124101 / 79–125109 / 86–132106 / 84–135101 / 83–129105 / 90–129110 / 74–140105 / 58–14198 / 40–135
DLI11 / 10–1317 / 16–1925 / 24–2631 / 30–3336 / 34–3838 / 36–4138 / 36–4033 / 31–3425 / 23–2717 / 15–2011 / 9–138 / 7–11
RH %63 / 58–6761 / 57–6458 / 56–6156 / 55–6057 / 55–6159 / 57–6260 / 58–6360 / 59–6361 / 59–6360 / 58–6361 / 59–6463 / 58–67

Each figure is the median across the 1480 grid cells holding the 1711 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 891:1905 (45.425, -84.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1480 distinct grid cells holding the 1711 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 891:1905 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_-85.000, lapse-corrected +22 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 232 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Poland, France, Baltic States
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker43.365, -72.182 · in the densest population, 385 records (21% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1816 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 462 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 113 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 105 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1816 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Spiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea albaSpiraea alba

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Patrice Dupont, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Spiraea alba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Attractiveness of Michigan Native Plants to Arthropod Natural Enemies and Herbivores
Anna K. Fiedler, Douglas A. Landis (2007) · Environmental Entomology
Attractiveness of Michigan Native Plants to Arthropod Natural Enemies and Herbivores
Anna K. Fiedler, Douglas A. Landis (2007) · Environmental Entomology
Succession of a degraded bog in NE Denmark over 164 years : monitoring one of the earliest restoration experiments
Johannes Kollmann, Kristine Kjørup Rasmussen (2012) · Publication Server of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Light Exposure and Shade Effects on Growth, Flowering, and Leaf Morphology of Spiraea alba Du Roi and Spiraea tomentosa L
Kelly M. Stanton, Sally S. Weeks, Michael N. Dana, Michael V. Mickelbart (2010) · HortScience
Homopterans and an Invasive Red Ant, Myrmica rubra (L.), in Maine
Katherine E. McPhee, Jeff R. Garnas, Frank Drummond, Eleanor Groden (2012) · Environmental Entomology
Vascular Plants of Adjacent Serpentine and Granite Outcrops on the Deer Isles, Maine, U.S.A
Nathaniel S. Pope, Tanner B. Harris, Nishanta Rajakaruna (2010) · Rhodora
Wetland and Microhabitat Use by Nesting Four-Toed Salamanders in Maine
Rebecca J. Chalmers, Cynthia S. Loftin (2006) · Journal of Herpetology
Gradient analysis of Lari× laricina dominated wetlands in Canada's southeastern boreal forest
Martin-Philippe Girardin, Jacques Tardif, Yves Bergeron (2001) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Bee Visitation on Flowers in Maine, United States, Reveals the Relative Attractiveness of Plants Through Space and Time: Part I
Alison C. Dibble, Francis A. Drummond, Lois Berg Stack (2020) · Environmental Entomology
Gradient analysis of Larix laricina dominated wetlands in Canada's southeastern boreal forest
Martin-Philippe Girardin, Jacques Tardif, Yves Bergeron (2001) · Canadian Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Spiraea 9 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.