Dropwort or Meadowsweet: how to tell them apart?
Dropwort and Meadowsweet look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Dropwort
Filipendula vulgaris
Meadowsweet
Filipendula ulmaria
Meadowsweet grows in damp places, with large compound leaves and a characteristic sweet scent, whereas dropwort grows in dry grassland, with finer foliage and roots swollen into small tubers.
🍃 Leaves
Deeply cut, fern-like, bright green, in a basal rosette
Compound, large toothed leaflets, whitish and downy underneath
🌸 Flowers
Small creamy-white flowers in large panicles
Tiny cream flowers in large, frothy, highly fragrant panicles
🍎 Fruits
Achenes grouped in a star
Small spiralled achenes
🪵 Bark
Swollen tuberous root, basal clump
Robust herbaceous stem, reddish at the base
📏 Size
30 to 70 cm tall
60 cm to 1.2 m tall
🗺️ Habitat
Dry grassland, gardens, chalky soils
Wet meadows, riverbanks
⚠️ Toxicity
No known toxicity.
No known toxicity; plant at the origin of the discovery of salicylic acid (aspirin).
🔎 And from the Meadowsweet side
Meadowsweet grows in damp places, with large compound leaves and a characteristic sweet scent, whereas dropwort grows in dry meadows, with finer foliage and roots swollen into small tubers.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.