Plants & Nature

Meadowsweet

Tags: Weeds and herbs Description: Meadowsweet is a herb that can grow between 50 and 150 cm tall.

Meadowsweet

Tags: Weeds and herbs Description: Meadowsweet is a herb that can grow between 50 and 150 cm tall. The leaves of meadowsweet are fairly easy to recognise, since the stems are red with leaflets that are dark green on the upper side and lighter green underneath. Up along the leaf stalk there are alternating larger and tiny leaflets. The flowers are creamy white and sit many together in a large head. They have a strong, sweet, almond-like scent, and with it they attract insects to pollinate the flowers. The pleasant scent, which is reminiscent of newly cut hay, meant that the plant was formerly gathered for festive occasions and strewn across the floors. Use: Meadowsweet got its name from being used to rub down the casks in which mead was to be brewed. Meadowsweet has played an important role in the development of the painkilling substance aspirin. Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid, which is pain-relieving. In the 1800s and the early 1900s this substance was extracted from the plant. Unfortunately it had a number of side effects, and in time it was found better to develop the substance aspirin, which is very similar. Habitat type: Cultural landscape Edible: No Written by: Lærke Stewart

, via Wikimedia Commons](Mj%C3%B8durt/Mjdurt.jpg)

Meadowsweet. Photo: Daniel Ballmer, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

, via Wikimedia Commons](Mj%C3%B8durt/Mjdurt2.jpg)

The leaves of meadowsweet. Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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