How do you recognise Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)?

Leaf

Jon Mortin, Wikimedia · CC BY 4.0

Meadowsweet

Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim.

Also known as: Queen of the meadow

Family: Rosaceae

60 cm to 1.2 m tall

Wet meadows, riverbanks

Flowering: June – August

Full sun

Part shade

Very hardy, to -25°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

Very recognisable sweet scent, at the origin of the name aspirin (spiraeic acid). 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.

🍃 Leaves

Compound, large toothed leaflets, whitish and downy underneath

🌸 Flowers

Tiny cream flowers in large, frothy, highly fragrant panicles

🍎 Fruits

Small spiralled achenes

🪵 Bark

Robust herbaceous stem, reddish at the base

🗺️ Distribution

Europe, temperate Asia; very common in wet meadows, banks and ditches in France.

🐝 Value for pollinators

Large panicles of small, highly fragrant cream-white flowers rich in nectar, attractive to many insects.

✂️ Horticultural uses

Damp borders, pond edges, naturalistic gardens; very fragrant foliage and flowers used in herbal tea.

⚠️ Possible toxicity

No known toxicity; plant at the origin of the discovery of salicylic acid (aspirin).

⚠️ Look-alike species

Meadowsweet

Filipendula ulmaria

Dropwort

Filipendula vulgaris

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.

Meadowsweet

Filipendula ulmaria

Queen of the prairie

Filipendula rubra

Meadowsweet has highly fragrant cream-white flowers and leaflets whitish and downy underneath, and grows wild in France, whereas the queen of the prairie, even taller (up to 2.5 m) and found only in cultivation in gardens, has distinctly pink flowers and compound leaves without white down underneath.

🌿 Other Rosaceae to discover

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.

🌱 This database is constantly evolving — species and information are added and corrected regularly. Spotted a mistake? Report it below.