Meadowsweet

Appearance

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.

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.

Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus "Triphragmium ulmariae", which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.

Naming

White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire. Similar finds have also been found inside a Beaker from Ashgrove, Fife, and a vessel from North Mains, Strathallan. These could indicate honey-based mead or flavoured ale, or might suggest the plant placed on the grave as a scented flower.

In Welsh Mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd.

It is known by many other names, and in Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" it is known as Meadwort and was one of the ingredients in a drink called "save." It was also known as Bridewort, because it was strewn in churches for festivals and weddings, and often made into bridal garlands. In Europe, it took its name "queen of the meadow" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow. In the 16th century, when it was customary to strew floors with rushes and herbs, it was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. She desired it above all other herbs in her chambers.

The name ulmaria means "elmlike", an odd epithet as it does not resemble the elm in any way. However, like slippery elm bark, the plant contains salicylic acid, which has long been used as a painkiller, and this may be the source of the name. However, the generic name, "Filipendula", comes from "filum", meaning "thread" and "pendulus", meaning "hanging." This is said to describe the root tubers that hang characteristically on the genus, on fibrous roots.