Meadowsweet Traditional Cache

Meadowsweet is called Mooseherb (Älgört) in Swedish. I was very excited to see it by the road this morning. It's called "selective perception". I have lived here 50 years and never noticed it before.

Meadowsweet likes its feet wet. I don't. So the cache is about ten steps away from the plants. I went to my Swedish Flora to find the latin name and then Meadowsweet.

Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweetor mead wort, is a perennial herb in the family that grows in damp meadows. It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia(Near east and Middle east). It has been introduced and naturalised in North America.

Meadowsweet has also been referred to as Queen of the Meadow, Pride of the Meadow, Meadow-Wort, Meadow Queen, Lady of the Meadow, Dollof, Meadsweet, and Bridewort.

Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell. They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.

The whole herb possesses a pleasant taste and flavour, the green parts having a similar aromatic character to the flowers, leading to the use of the plant as a strewing herb, strewn on floors to give the rooms a pleasant aroma, and its use to flavour wine, beer, and many vinegars. The flowers can be added to stewed fruit and jams, giving them a subtle almond flavor. It has many medicinal properties. The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in infinitesimal quantities in preparations. Dried, the flowers are used in potpourri. It is also a frequently used spice in Scandinavian varieties of mead .

Chemical constituents include salicylic acid , flavone, glycosides, essential oils, and tannins.

In 1897,Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin, derived from the species, which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally a acetylsalicylic acid, was named aspirin by Hoffman's employer Bayer AG after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria. This gave rise to the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

This plant contains the chemicals used to make aspirin. A small section of root, when peeled and crushed smells like Germolene, and when chewed is a good natural remedy for relieving headaches. A natural black dye can be obtained from the roots by using a copper mordant.

About one in five people with asthma has Samter's triad, in which aspirin induces asthma symptoms. Therefore, asthmatics should be aware of the possibility that meadowsweet, with its similar biochemistry, will also induce symptoms of asthma.

The tied in cache is a small "small" pill bottle. This is the Push hard and turn, both to open and close, kind. It has a rolled log held by a rubber band, to help it fit in the tiny plastic zip lock bag. Please put the rubber band on your finger while you log. That way it will be handy when you have it all neatly rolled up again. BYOP and no tweezers, please, they kill the plastic.