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Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), Higher Marsh

The tiny creamy flowers are sweetly scented from early summer and the leaves are also subtly fragrant. Naturally found in boggy areas or damp woodland, ditches and hedgerows. Meadowsweet is also known as Queen of the Meadow. It contains salicylic acid from which aspirin was first derived. Nowadays aspirin is produced synthetically but meadowsweet is still taken as an infusion for rheumatic and arthritic complaints and as a pleasant and gentle sedative. A tea made flowers of meadowsweet and elder is good to take at the onset of a cold or feverish condition, so it is worth drying the flowers for winter use. The flowers and leaves can be used in salads and soups. Folklore claims that where meadowsweet grows there are no snakes, which can also mean, therefore, that there is no evil.