Species
+

Spiraea douglasii Hook.

Douglas Spiraea, Douglas' meadowsweet, Douglas' spiraea, Douglas' spirea

Climate known 55 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the rose family. Common names include hardhack, hardhack steeplebush, Douglas' spirea, douglasspirea, steeplebush, and rose spirea. It is native to western North America and is an invasive species in other locales.

Text from Wikipedia, “Spiraea douglasii”, 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
Hook.
Native to
Alaska, British Columbia, Colorado +5
Wild records
1330 in range· 298 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1465mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 230 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–42DLI
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: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1465 mm a year, wettest November at 230 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.6 °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 douglasii f. douglasii; Spiraea tomentosa Raf.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1095 mm of 1465 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 5.8 °C against a yearly mean of 10.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1465 mm a year, wettest November at 230 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1465 mm a year at the habitat, 1095 mm of it October to March. Wettest month November at 230 mm, driest July at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 820 mm to 2639 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: 6 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 42 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 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 -4.6 °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 -4.6 °C, the absolute minimum -13.1 °C, about 18 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.6 °C in December (across the envelope cells -7.1 °C to 3.7 °C), warmest day 24.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.6 °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: 58 to 66% 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 5 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from 1 °C in Dec to 13 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1465 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 830 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -13.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost26.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-13.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 6–42RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 830 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 °C6 / -0–98 / 2–1110 / 5–1313 / 8–1617 / 13–1920 / 16–2324 / 18–2824 / 19–2821 / 17–2514 / 10–189 / 3–115 / -1–8
Night °C1 / -7–41 / -6–43 / -4–55 / -1–78 / 2–911 / 6–1213 / 10–1513 / 10–1511 / 6–137 / 1–103 / -4–61 / -7–4
Rain mm210 / 104–377153 / 74–278147 / 71–276105 / 55–19781 / 49–14064 / 33–11629 / 13–7432 / 14–7859 / 29–122131 / 67–282230 / 115–412224 / 114–395
DLI7 / 6–1213 / 11–1820 / 19–2729 / 28–3636 / 34–4339 / 36–4742 / 39–5036 / 34–4427 / 24–3415 / 13–228 / 6–136 / 5–10
RH %65 / 62–6963 / 60–6562 / 59–6461 / 56–6360 / 54–6359 / 53–6358 / 48–6358 / 48–6360 / 50–6463 / 55–6666 / 62–6965 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 830 grid cells holding the 1301 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 815:1140 (49.225, -122.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.5 °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 830 distinct grid cells holding the 1301 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 815:1140 (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 49.00_-123.125, lapse-corrected +6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 69 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.
NativeAlaska, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Baltic States, Illinois, Argentina South
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker49.065, -122.846 · in the densest population, 641 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1330 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 298 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 393 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 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 1330 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Spiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasiiSpiraea douglasii

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Eric Lamb, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) giantcicada, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 douglasii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Home Ranges, Movements, and Habitat Selection of Oregon Spotted Frogs (Rana pretiosa)
James Watson, Kelly R. McAllister, D. John Pierce (2003) · Journal of Herpetology
The Detection of Viruses with Nematode Vectors in Six Woody Hosts
J. I. Cooper, Jeremy B. Sweet (1976) · Forestry An International Journal of Forest Research
Leaf micromorphology in Rosaceae tribe Spiraeeae (subfamily Amygdaloideae) and its systematic and ecological implications
Jun‐Ho Song, Min-Kyeong Oak, Suk‐Pyo Hong (2024) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Neofusicoccum arbuti : a hidden threat to Arbutus menziesii characterized by widespread latent infections and a broad host range
Rob Roy McGregor, Monique L. Sakalidis, Richard C. Hamelin (2016) · Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology
Floral and Bird Excreta Semiochemicals Attract Western Carpenter Ants
Asim Renyard, Regine Gries, Stephanie Cooper, Claire Gooding (2022) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Comprehensive assessment of the degree of landscape compositions’ ornamentality
O. Yu. Emelyanova, Lubov Masalova, А Н Фирсов (2021) · E3S Web of Conferences
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 82 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.