Spiraea betulifolia Pall.
Birch-leaved Meadowsweet, Birch-leaved Spirea, Birchleaf Spirea, Birkenblättriger Spierstrauch (DE)
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 betulifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is primarily native from Eastern Siberia to Korea and Northern and Central Japan. The historically recognized varieties native to North America are var. corymbosa, native to a portion of eastern North America, and var. lucida, now known as Spiraea lucida, native to British Columbia and the northwestern United States eastward to Sasketchewan and the Black Hills.
Text from Wikipedia, “Spiraea betulifolia”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Spiraea betulifolia P.Watson; Spiraea betulifolia f. angustifolia Debeaux; Spiraea betulifolia f. glaucina Kitam.; Spiraea betulifolia f. latifolia Debeaux; Spiraea betulifolia f. yoshitakae (Toyok.) Toyok. and 18 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (805 mm of 1067 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 7.0 °C against a yearly mean of -0.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.
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 1067 mm a year, wettest August at 156 mm, driest February at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1067 mm a year at the habitat, 805 mm of it May to November. Wettest month August at 156 mm, driest February at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 561 mm to 2517 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: 7 to 35 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 35 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 1, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).
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 -22.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -22.0 °C, the absolute minimum -28.6 °C, about 199 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -20.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -33.1 °C to -8.7 °C), warmest day 17.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -22.0 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -13 / -27–-3 | -11 / -23–-3 | -5 / -15–1 | 2 / -8–9 | 8 / 1–15 | 14 / 9–20 | 18 / 13–23 | 17 / 12–23 | 13 / 5–19 | 6 / -5–13 | -4 / -19–6 | -11 / -25–0 |
| Night °C | -20 / -33–-9 | -19 / -31–-9 | -14 / -23–-5 | -5 / -14–1 | 0 / -5–6 | 7 / 3–12 | 11 / 7–16 | 11 / 5–17 | 7 / -1–13 | -1 / -13–7 | -11 / -25–0 | -18 / -32–-6 |
| Rain mm | 49 / 16–178 | 37 / 12–143 | 50 / 16–155 | 68 / 26–158 | 86 / 31–186 | 94 / 44–219 | 128 / 69–312 | 156 / 83–321 | 142 / 64–289 | 114 / 48–251 | 85 / 30–235 | 58 / 19–204 |
| DLI | 9 / 2–15 | 15 / 7–21 | 25 / 17–29 | 32 / 29–34 | 35 / 33–38 | 34 / 31–37 | 30 / 27–33 | 26 / 21–29 | 21 / 15–25 | 15 / 8–20 | 9 / 3–15 | 7 / 1–12 |
| RH % | 67 / 59–78 | 65 / 59–74 | 63 / 57–70 | 61 / 55–67 | 62 / 58–67 | 65 / 60–69 | 67 / 62–71 | 66 / 63–70 | 64 / 61–68 | 63 / 57–69 | 64 / 58–73 | 66 / 59–78 |
Each figure is the median across the 591 grid cells holding the 759 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 936:6281 (43.175, 134.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -22.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.2 °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 591 distinct grid cells holding the 759 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 936:6281 (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 43.00_134.375, lapse-corrected +802 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 910 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Eugene Popov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lena Perova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Илья Руденко, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
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 betulifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Bergenia crassifolia Elephant's ears
Pinguicula villosa Hairy butterwort
Phedimus hybridus Siberian Stonecrop
Orostachys spinosa Spinose rock pine
Pinguicula leptoceras Southern Butterwort
Spiraea salicifolia Bridal-sprayOther Spiraea 9 in the reference
Spiraea alba Meadowsweet
Spiraea cantoniensis Bridal Wreath
Spiraea chamaedryfolia Elm-Leaved Spiraea
Spiraea douglasii Douglas Spiraea
Spiraea japonica Japanese Meadowsweet
Spiraea prunifolia Bridalwreath Spirea Spiraea salicifolia Bridal-spray
Spiraea thunbergii Thunberg spiraea
Spiraea trilobata Asian meadowsweet 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 118 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.