This time of year the water meadows are covered in summer plants, one of my favourites is Meadowsweet. Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), common on damp ground is a slender, can grow up to 2m tall, perennial herb, with dark green serrated leaves and beautifully delicate cream white clusters of strong sweet smelling flowers. Meadowsweet smells divine and was once prized as a strewing herb. Though this plant is not merely a pretty fragrant plant. Meadowsweet is a powerful nature medicine; the roots contains salicylic acid, a compound used to make aspirin; a piece of peeled root, chewed, will help relieve headaches. The flowers too have been used medicinally as well as flavouring for beverages and preserves.
* As Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid care should taken in using if you asthmatic; as like aspirin it may induce asthma symptoms.
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