Dropwort

Filipendula vulgaris (dropwort) is a perennial herbaceous plant of the rose family (Rosaceae), growing from short tuberous rhizomes bearing characteristic spindle-shaped root tubers that resemble small pendulous beads. The plant produces a basal rosette of finely cut, fern-like pinnate leaves with many pairs of deeply toothed leaflets that emit a faint wintergreen scent when bruised, owing to methyl salicylate content. From the rosette arises a sparsely leafed, erect flowering stem 20–50 cm tall (overall plant height to about 100 cm) that terminates in a loose corymbose inflorescence of numerous small, creamy-white, six-petalled flowers, often flushed pink in bud, appearing from late spring to midsummer. The fruit is a cluster of dry, hairy achenes. Native to Europe, western Siberia, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and North Africa, dropwort favours dry pastures and rough grassland on chalk, limestone, and other base-rich soils, and tolerates drier conditions better than most other members of its genus.