Physocarpus opulifolius(L.) Maxim.

common ninebark

WFO wfo-0001017550 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Kalvin Chan
fig. a Kalvin Chan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 202799827
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Glenn Berry
fig. b Glenn Berry, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204734066
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Susan Berry
fig. c Susan Berry, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203025717
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Howard Williams
fig. d Howard Williams, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 201337158
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Natalie Waddell-Rutter
fig. e Natalie Waddell-Rutter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181495101
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Mila C.
fig. f Mila C., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201078335
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Jeff Clark
fig. g Jeff Clark, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200624140
Physocarpus opulifolius, photographed by Becca
fig. h Becca, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174944125

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 883 observations

Peak flowering in Jun, from 883 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 37 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Neillia bracteata (Rydb.) Bean
  • Neillia opulifolia (L.) W.H.Brewer & S.Watson
  • Neillia opulifolia var. ferruginea (Nutt.) S.Watson
  • Neillia stellata (Rydb. ex Small) Bean
  • Opulaster alabamensis Rydb.
  • Opulaster australis Rydb.
  • Opulaster bracteatus Rydb.
  • Opulaster bullatus Medik.
  • Opulaster intermedius Small
  • Opulaster opulifolius (L.) Kuntze
  • Opulaster opulifolius f. luteus C.K.Schneid.
  • Opulaster stellatus Rydb.
  • Opulaster stellatus Rydb. ex Small
  • Physocarpus australis (Rydb.) Rehder
  • Physocarpus bracteatus (Rydb.) Rehder
  • Physocarpus ferrugineus (Nutt.) Daniels
  • Physocarpus glaber Raf.
  • Physocarpus glabra Raf.
  • Physocarpus opulifolius Raf.
  • Physocarpus opulifolius f. atropurpureus Geerinck
  • Physocarpus opulifolius f. luteus (G.Kirchn.) Zabel
  • Physocarpus opulifolius f. nanus (G.Kirchn.) Zabel
  • Physocarpus opulifolius var. aureus Rehder
  • Physocarpus opulifolius var. luteus (G.Kirchn.) Dippel

and 13 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.