Wild Flower Meadowsweet Filipendula Ulmaria

Wild Flower - Meadowsweet - Filipendula Ulmaria

Meadowsweet is a sweet smelling plant found in wet meadows, with a really attractive creamy white flower. It was used as a strewing herb and as a flavouring in drinks. It grows well by streams and on wet grasslands. The flower heads of Meadowsweet are rich in salicylic acid, the chemical which lead to the discovery of acetylsalicylic acid, more commonly known as Aspirin. In fact the name Aspirin derived from the old Latin name of Meadowsweet Spiraea ulmaria.

This is a spring germinating plant best sown in the autumn. It grows rapidly in the spring reaching full height in July.