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These bright spires of pink bloom attract our attention no less
than the countless eyes of flies, beetles, and bees, ever on the
lookout for food to be eaten on the spot or stored up for future
progeny. Pollen-feeding insects such as these, delight in the
spireas, most of which secrete little or no nectar, but yield an
abundance of pollen, which they can gather from the crowded
panicles with little loss of time, transferring some of it to the
pistils, of course, as they move over the tiny blossoms. But most
spireas are also able to fertilize themselves, insects failing
them.
An instant's comparison shows the steeple bush to be closely
related to the fleecy, white meadow-sweet, often found growing
near. The pink spires, which bloom from the top downward, have
pale brown tips where the withered flowers are, toward the end of
summer.
Why is the under side of the leaves so woolly? Not as a
protection against wingless insects crawling upward, that is
certain; for such could only benefit these tiny clustered
flowers.


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