Spiraea confusa Regel & Körnicke var. sericea (Turczaninow) Regel; S. media Schmidt var. sericea (Turczaninow) Maximowicz.

Shrubs erect, to 2 m tall. Branchlets brown turning gray-brown or gray-red when old, subterete, sericeous-villous initially, later glabrescent; buds long ovoid, 3–5 × 1.5–3 mm, with several brown scales, pubescent, apex acuminate. Petiole 1–2 mm, densely sericeous; leaf blade abaxially grayish green, adaxially dark green, ovate-elliptic or elliptic, 1.5–4.5 × 0.7–1.5 cm, abaxially densely accumbent sericeous, adaxially pilose, distinctly pinnately veined, base cuneate, margin entire (or on sterile branchlets 2–5-serrate on each side), apex acute. Racemes pedunculate, umbellate, 3–6 × 2–3(–4) cm, 15–30-flowered; pedicels 6–10 mm, glabrous or pilose; bracts linear, minute, glabrous. Flowers 4–5 mm in diam. Hypanthium subcampanulate, glabrous abaxially. Sepals ovate, 1–2 mm, reflexed in fruit, apex obtuse. Petals white, suborbicular, 2–3 mm, nearly as broad as long, base shortly clawed. Stamens 15–20, unequal, longer ones ca. 2 × as long as petals, shorter ones nearly equaling petals. Disk annular, distinctly 10-lobed. Styles shorter than stamens. Follicles divergent, pubescent; styles terminal. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Mixed forests, grasslands, dry slopes; 500--1100 m. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Japan, Mongolia, Russia].