Astilbe

Chinese astilbe is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial whose wild range Wikipedia gives as eastern China, the Japanese archipelago, and Korea (with Manchuria and the Amur basin in broader botanical-country treatments), growing along shaded streams and in damp broadleaf-forest margins at elevations of 1,312 to 11,811 feet. In the garden it is prized for feathery, upright plumes in mauve, rose, or purple over ferny, deep-green compound foliage in summer, and is one of the more reliable performers in the part-shade border. The honest catch is moisture: despite being the most drought-tolerant species in the genus, it still demands consistently moist soil and will scorch and collapse quickly in hot, dry exposure, so plant it where soil never dries out and expect little in dry shade under thirsty tree roots.

A clump-forming, rhizomatous perennial from rocky mountain ravines in Japan, also called false goat's beard, false spirea, false buck's beard or florist's spiraea. Glossy, deeply toothed, doubly compound leaves carry feathery, branched plumes of small white flowers in late spring and early summer, earlier than many other astilbes. It is a plant for moist shade: the RHS calls it drought intolerant and liable to damage in hot sun, and suggests it for boggy ground and the edge of water. Many astilbes sold under this name are japonica hybrids, such as 'Deutschland' and 'Rheinland', in white and shades of pink and peach; this record is the white-flowered species.