Family, Rose. Color, white, pink, or purplish. Sepals and petals, 5. Stamens, many. Flowers small, in abundant, roundish, umbel-like clusters, each on a slender pedicel, the umbel peduncled. Pods follow the flowers, 3 together, of a purplish color, longer and more conspicuous than the flowers. Leaves, alternate, roundish in outline, heart-shape or square at base, generally 3-lobed, finely serrate. June.

An ornamental shrub, often cultivated, 3 to 10 feet high, with recurved branches. The old bark becomes loose and every year separates, hanging in thin strips, whence the common name. Along banks of streams, New England to Florida.