Virginia-willow, Virginia sweetspire, Virginia-tea

Shrubs 1-3 m. Stems erect or arching, forming clumps by underground runners, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Leaves: petiole 3-10 mm; blade elliptic to oblong-oblanceolate, 2-9 × 1-4 cm, margins glandular-serrate to serrulate or minutely denticulate. Racemes arching, 20-80-flowered, 4-15 cm, rachis puberulent. Pedicels 1-3.5 mm, puberulent. Flowers: sepals erect or slightly divergent, narrowly oblong, 0.6-1 mm, apex acute; petals narrowly oblong, 3.5-6 mm; filaments 1-2 mm, pubescent; styles longitudinally grooved. Capsules ± reflexed, cylindric, 0.7-1 cm, styles persistent, pubescent. Seeds 1-1.4 × 0.4-0.9 mm, smooth, shiny. 2n = 22.

Flowering Mar-Jun. Swamps, wet woods, stream banks, streamheads, beaver ponds; 0-300 m; Ala., Ark., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.C., Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.

Itea virginica is widely cultivated for its showy inflorescences, fragrant flowers, and colorful fall foliage.