Filipendula ulmaria, Spiraea ulmaria, SE: Älggräs, mjödört, älgört,
DE: Großes Mädesüß, NL: Moerasspirea, UK: Meadowsweet

Scientific name:  Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim.
Synonym name:  Spiraea ulmaria L.
Swedish name:  Älggräs, mjödört, älgört
German name:  Großes Mädesüß
Nederlandse naam:   Moerasspirea
English name:  Meadowsweet, Queen of the Meadow
Family:   Rosaceae, Rose family, Rosväxter

Flowers in Sweden (Vilda blommor i Sverige - Svenska blommor, Sverige vilda växter)
Date Picture Taken: July 13, 2008
Life form:  Perennial
Stems:  Erect, branched, red stem
Leaves:  Pinnate, serrategreen on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath
Flowers:  Creamy-white clusters
Flowering Period:  June, July, August
Fruits:  a one-seeded follicle, spirally twisted
Habitat:  Woods, bogs, meadows

Filipendula ulmaria, Spiraea ulmaria, SE Älggräs, DE Großes Mädesüß, NL Moerasspirea, UK Meadowsweet
Location: Hammarstrand; Date Picture Taken: July 23, 2008


Derivation of the botanical name:
Filipendula, filum, "thread", and pendulus, "drooping" – referring to the root tubers of some species which hang together by threads.
ulmaria, from the Latin, ulmus, "elm," referring to the resemblance of Meadowsweet's leaves to those of the elm tree.
  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
  • The standard author abbreviation Maxim. is used to indicate Carl Maximowicz (1827 – 1891), a Russian botanist.

  • Filipendula ulmaria was one of the three most sacred herbs of the Druids (Mentha aquatica and Verbena officinalis being the other two).Druids fulfilled a variety of roles in Celtic religion, as priests and religious officiants, but also as judges, sacrificers, teachers and lore-keepers. In general, they were the "college professors" of their time.
  • In 1597, John Gerard (1545-1611/12) said of Meadowsweet in his Herbal: "the smell thereof makes the heart merry and joyful and delighteth the senses."
  • Nicholas Culpeper(1616–1654), a seventeenth-century English pharmacist, mentioned its use to help break fevers and promote sweating during a cold or flu.
  • In 1838, the Italian, Rafaele Piria (1814-1865), first produced salicylic acid from the flower buds of Meadowsweet and from Willow Bark (Salix alba).
  • In 1897 Felix Hoffmann (1868-1946) formulated a new drug (acetylsalicylic acid), a synthetically altered version of salicin, derived from Filipendula ulmaria, which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally Acetylsalicylic acid, was named aspirin by Hoffman's employer Bayer AG after the plant's older name Spirea ulmaria.

Filipendula ulmaria, Spiraea ulmaria, SE Älggräs, DE Großes Mädesüß, NL Moerasspirea, UK Meadowsweet
Date Picture Taken: July 23, 2008