Sorbaria arborea Schneid.

A spreading deciduous shrub, usually 10 to 20 ft high, but said sometimes to be up to 30 ft; young shoots and leaf-stalks slightly downy. Leaves pinnate, with thirteen to seventeen leaflets which are oblong-ovate to lanceolate, long and slenderly pointed, 2 to 4 in. long, doubly toothed, stellately downy beneath but often only slightly so. Flowers white, 1⁄4 in. wide, produced densely in fine, often pyramidal panicles up to and over 12 in. long, during July.

Native of Central and Western China, introduced by E. H. Wilson in 1908. It is closely akin to S. tomentosa but superior to that species which differs in the hairs beneath the leaves being simple (not clustered). S. arborea has also a shorter calyx-tube and longer stamens. It is the finest of the genus and may be pruned every winter. It likes a good loamy soil and gives finer panicles if top-dressed with manure occasionally.