Meadowsweet
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Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is a perennial herb in the family Rosaceae, which grows in damp meadows. It is native throughout most of Europe and western Asia.
The stems are 1-2 m tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple. The leaves are dark green on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath, much divided, interruptedly pinnate, having a few large serrate leaflets and small intermediate ones. Terminal leaflets are large, 4-8 cm long and three to five-lobed. The leaves are sometimes eaten by the larvae of the Emperor Moth.
Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in handsome irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell. They flower from June to early September.
The name ulmaria means "elmlike", an odd epithet as it does not resemble the elm (Ulmus) in any way. Other species of Filipendula include F. kamtschatica, F. multijuga, F. palmata, F. purpurea, F. rubra, F. vestita and F. vulgaris.
Uses
The whole herb possesses a pleasant taste and flavour, the green parts having a similar aromatic character to the flowers, leading to the use of the plant to strew on floors to give the rooms a pleasant aroma, and its use to flavour wine and beer. Meadowsweet was regarded as sacred by the Druids. It is reputed to have many medicinal properties.
In 1897 Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin, derived from the species, which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally Acetylsalicylic acid, was named aspirin by Hoffman's employer Bayer AG. This gave rise to the hugely important class of drugs known as NonSteroidal AntiInflammatory Drugs, or NSAIDs.
External links
- Meadowsweet (http://www.purplesage.org.uk/profiles/meadowsweet.htm)no:Mjødurt