Here you will find information about Meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria, its medicinal and other properties and its place in folklore.
Meadowsweet is a herbaceous perennial shrub, native to the UK and Europe. The fern-like foliage is followed by creamy-white frothy plumes of tiny flowers, that produce dry seed capsules. A member of the huge Rosaceae family, its favoured habitat in the wild is damp, moderately fertile areas in meadows, woodland or water’s edge locations, and it is also found on road verges and railway banks.
The plant’s fragrance has been described as a ‘unique combination of honey, vanilla, and bitter almond’. Others have compared it to wintergreen (Gaultheria), i.e. minty, or even ‘medicinal’. It has also been described as ‘like marzipan’, and the scent of the leaves has been compared to cucumber. These contrasting views arise because different parts of the plant have different aromas – the fresh blossom smells different from the crushed leaves, for instance. Obsolete local names reflect this contradiction – “bittersweet” is quoted in Mabey’s Flora Britannica.
The botanical name of the plant refers to its appearance, translating roughly as ‘dangling threads’, and there are around a dozen Filipendula species in Northern Europe and in North America.
Medicinal Uses
Meadowsweet has been known for its health benefits since ancient times.
Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, visionary, writer, philosopher and polymath, grew meadowsweet in her garden as a medicinal plant for several common ailments. It is still widely used by modern practitioners of German traditional medicine.
In 1830, German scientists discovered it was a source of salicylic acid, and named the chemical Spirsäure after the plant’s Latin name at the time, Spiraea. In 1893, another German chemist managed to make a synthetic version of the chemical, which they named AcetylSpirsäure, and this was eventually marketed as Aspirin. People who love words as well as plants probably know that salicylic itself comes from a plant name: Salix, the Latin for Willow, known for thousands of years as a medicinal plant, and previously a common source of the same chemical.
Meadowsweet is recognised by medicinal herbalists in several treatments, and scientific research backs up much of the traditional thinking about this plant, which not only contains salicylicates but also tannins. It may be prescribed:
– for digestive disorders: peptic ulcers, heartburn, gastritis and urinary tract infection;
– as an anti-inflammatory: rheumatism and other joint pain; or
– to reduce mucus: in treating colds and bronchitis.
It also has a gentler action on the digestive system than aspirin.
WARNING
Pregnant or lactating women should avoid meadowsweet preparations, as should those sensitive to salicylates or sulfites. Asthmatics should use it with caution. You should never self-medicate: always consult a medical professional.
Other Uses
Strewing – the sweet smell of the dried herb meant it was a natural component of strewn herbs on medieval floors, and was also used as an insect repellent and disinfectant.
Flavouring – particularly for drinks. Mead is sometimes called honey-wine, and meadowsweet’s aromas would complement this naturally. Culpeper suggested adding a leaf to claret wine to add ‘relish’. It is one of the thirty herbs and spices in Norfolk Punch, a non-alcoholic cordial originally made in the area by Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages, and still available to buy.
The flowers can be added to beer and vinegar, and used to give a subtle almond flavour to home-made jams. The young leaves can be used to make a tisane, or added to soup.
Myth and Magic
The common name suggests ‘sweet scented meadow flower’, though it is thought that the first part of its name did not originally refer to its habitat. Its Old English name, from which we get the modern one, was medowyrt, from meodu (mead, the drink to which it was added), and wyrt, meaning plant or herb – the whole name meaning mead-herb. However, over the centuries its association with meadows seems settled: the Tudor botanist John Gerard called it the Queene of the medowes, and in Culpeper’s Complete Herbal it is indexed as Queen of the Meadow OR Meadow-Sweet.
While we’re very familiar with this name, commonly used across most of the UK, it’s interesting to note that the Gaelic name, in Northern Ireland, is crios Chu-chulainn meaning ‘the belt of Cú Chulainn’. Cú Chulainn was the legendary hero of Ulster, a mighty warrior whose violent rages could only be soothed by being bathed by his maidens in water scented with meadowsweet. He so much enjoyed this experience that he had a belt woven from the herb, and wore it always to remind him.
In Welsh folklore, the plant represented Blodeuwedd, wife of the warrior and magician Lleu Llaw Gyffes, a legendary king of Gwynedd. She was created by magicians from broom, oak and meadowsweet, his mother having cursed him so that he would never have a human wife (blodeuwedd means flower-faced). Later in the tale, Blodeuwedd was turned into an owl: The Owl Service, by Alan Garner OBE, the award-winning Cheshire author, is a modern interpretation of the legend.
Acknowledgments Thanks to the following for much of the above information:
www.webmd.com
www.indigo-herbs.co.uk
www.drugs.com
www.eatweeds.co.uk
www.plantlife.org.uk
www.healthyhildegard.com
www.ediblewildfood.com
Flora Britannica by Richard Mabey
Complete Herbal by Nicolas Culpeper
