Spiraea japonicaL.f.

Japanese meadowsweetJapanese spiraea

WFO wfo-0001008609 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Spiraea japonica, photographed by Mark Apgar
fig. a Mark Apgar, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 201423335
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Alina Martin
fig. b Alina Martin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198505836
Spiraea japonica, photographed by John Ambler
fig. c John Ambler, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170520364
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam
fig. d Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 152169363
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Mary K. Hanson
fig. e Mary K. Hanson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145887359
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. f Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143947842
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Erik Schiff
fig. g Erik Schiff, CC0 1.0 / obs. 144391748
Spiraea japonica, photographed by Ben Armstrong
fig. h Ben Armstrong, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140731344

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.

Native range 7 botanical countries

Regions where Spiraea japonica is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Myanmar China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanTibetMyanmar
Native distribution of Spiraea japonica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Myanmar MYA ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 91 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.

  • Spiraea albiflora (Miq.) Zabel
  • Spiraea albiflora C.K.Schneid.
  • Spiraea belloides hort.
  • Spiraea bodinieri H.Lév.
  • Spiraea bodinieri var. concolor H.Lév.
  • Spiraea bullata Maxim.
  • Spiraea bumalda Burv.
  • Spiraea bumalda f. froebelii (Froebel) Rehder
  • Spiraea bumalda f. pruhoniciana Rehder
  • Spiraea bumalda unranked ruberrima Lemoine
  • Spiraea bumalda var. anthony-watereri Moldenke
  • Spiraea bumalda var. froebelii Rehder
  • Spiraea callosa Thunb.
  • Spiraea callosa unranked alba Clémenc.
  • Spiraea callosa unranked froebelii Froebel
  • Spiraea callosa var. alba (Clémenc.) Regel
  • Spiraea callosa var. albiflora Miq.
  • Spiraea callosa var. flore-albo Regel
  • Spiraea callosa var. glabra Regel
  • Spiraea callosa var. parviflora Regel
  • Spiraea callosa var. pubescens Regel
  • Spiraea callosa var. robusta Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Spiraea callosa var. typica Regel
  • Spiraea crispifolia Zabel

and 67 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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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