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Spiraea virginiana; photograph (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-06-13

Spiraea virginiana Britton

Virginia spiraea; Virginia meadowsweet; Virginia Spirea

Rosaceae · Pennsylvania, West Virginia +6

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Spiraea virginiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSpiraea virginiana, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSpiraea virginiana, photograph (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spiraea virginiana, photograph (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spiraea virginiana, photograph (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spiraea virginiana, photograph (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY) 15 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-12.2°C
Record low -23.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,399mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 9 records in 9 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Spiraea virginiana is a rare species of flowering plant in the rose family (Rosaceae) known by the common names Virginia meadowsweet and Virginia spiraea. It is native to the southern Appalachian Mountains, where it has a distribution scattered across nine states. However, most populations are very small and poor in quality. It is threatened by disturbances in the hydrology of its habitat, introduced species of plants, and other threats. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Spiraea virginiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Spiraea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,002 mm of 1,395 mm) takes 8 months, December to July. Mean temperature moves 20.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to January.

Rain

1,395 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,002 mm of it December to July. Wettest month February at 146 mm, driest month October at 86 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,092 mm to 1,568 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,399 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,395 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -12.2 °C, the absolute minimum -23.8 °C, 3,888 frost nights in 44 years, 88.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.6 °C to -0.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -12.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -46 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 9 records in 9 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Spiraea virginiana through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -1.3 °C; 1,395 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-23.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–39RH 56–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 9 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 4–910 / 6–1115 / 11–1619 / 17–2023 / 21–2426 / 24–2828 / 26–3027 / 25–2924 / 22–2620 / 17–2114 / 11–159 / 6–10
Night °C-1 / -5–00 / -3–14 / 1–58 / 6–913 / 10–1417 / 15–1919 / 17–2118 / 16–2015 / 13–1710 / 8–115 / 3–60 / -2–2
Rain mm136 / 84–154146 / 91–157124 / 96–144110 / 89–123110 / 98–143108 / 103–151126 / 109–16297 / 90–124105 / 90–12486 / 72–101105 / 80–134142 / 89–159
DLI16 / 14–1820 / 19–2227 / 26–2934 / 33–3638 / 36–3939 / 39–3937 / 37–3834 / 34–3529 / 28–3024 / 21–2517 / 15–1814 / 12–15
RH %58 / 57–5957 / 57–5856 / 56–5756 / 55–5659 / 58–6061 / 60–6262 / 61–6362 / 61–6360 / 60–6258 / 57–6058 / 58–5959 / 58–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 9 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1059:1913 (37.025, -84.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 9 distinct grid cells holding 9 of the 9 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1059:1913 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -46 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 303 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativePennsylvania, West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.125, -84.69 · in the densest population, 25 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 42 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 9 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 5 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 433 km away. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 33 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 42 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Spiraea virginiana, photograph 1did not loadSpiraea virginiana, photograph 2did not loadSpiraea virginiana, photograph 3did not loadSpiraea virginiana, photograph 4did not loadSpiraea virginiana, photograph 5did not loadSpiraea virginiana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Clay Gibbons, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Trillium rugelii Trillium rugelii Illscented wakerobin Photo: CC BY, Sean FeirsteinAsarum shuttleworthii Asarum shuttleworthii Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelRhododendron cumberlandense Rhododendron cumberlandense Diploid flame azalea Photo: CC BY, Rachel StepekLeucothoe fontanesiana Leucothoe fontanesiana Fetter-bush Photo: CC BY, Sandy WolkenbergStenanthium gramineum Stenanthium gramineum Eastern featherbells Photo: CC0, author not statedTrillium simile Trillium simile Jeweled wakerobin Photo: CC BY, Ben Gruhot

Other Spiraea 50 in the reference

Spiraea alba Spiraea alba Pale bridewort Photo: CC0, author not statedSpiraea alpina Spiraea alpina Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Sharon Reid Spiraea arcuata Rosaceae Spiraea bella Spiraea bella Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke from Thane, IndiaSpiraea betulifolia Spiraea betulifolia White spirea Photo: CC BY, Nina FilippovaSpiraea blumei Spiraea blumei Montane spiraea Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengSpiraea cana Spiraea cana Grey meadowsweet Photo: CC0, author not statedSpiraea canescens Spiraea canescens Himalayan spiraea Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeSpiraea cantoniensis Spiraea cantoniensis Reeve's spiraea Photo: CC BY, Lauren McLaurinSpiraea chamaedryfolia Spiraea chamaedryfolia Germander meadowsweet Photo: CC BY, Christoph MoningSpiraea chinensis Spiraea chinensis Chinese spiraea Photo: CC BY-SA, Salicyna Spiraea compsophylla Rosaceae all 51 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Spiraea virginiana f. serrulata; Spiraea virginiana var. serrulata; Spiraea virginiana var. virginiana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Britton
Native to
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Alabama +5
Wild records
42 in range · 5 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -46 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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