Spiraea ×billardii
ζ*S. × billiardii Hérincq. ζ* (S. douglasii × S. salicifolia L.) has been collected wild as a cultivation escape in river bank scrub at Barrytown, Westland and a specimen from National Park township, Taumarunui County, C. North Id, was from a ± wild thicket. It is cultivated in N.Z. but not so commonly as formerly. An erect shrub c. 2 m high with reddish brown puberulent stems, forming suckering thickets; lvs ± ascending, elliptic-oblong, mostly 25-50 mm long, dull and slightly rugose with impressed veins above, green and hairy beneath, sometimes the hairs sparse, irregularly serrate or serrulate; apex usually acute or subacute, sometimes rounded to obtuse; infl. an elongated, densely hairy panicle 40-60 mm long; fls rose. The Westland specimen (AK 174255, Granite Creek Bridge, Barrytown, Gardner, 13.12.1985), is less hairy and has lvs with more rounded or obtuse apices than the North Id one. In this respect it more closely approaches S. douglasii var. menziesii (Hook.) Presl (usually known as S. menziesii Hook.), but this var. has a glabrous hypanthium, unlike both N.Z. specimens. (Cultivated hybrid, 1988).
