White Meadowsweet

Spiraea alba

Also known as Narrowleaf meadowsweet, Pale bridewort, White spirea, Quaker lady

At a glance

Family

Rosaceae (rose family)

Type

Deciduous flowering shrub

Parts used

Leaves, flowers, root bark

Size

2 to 4 feet tall, occasionally taller

Bloom

Mid to late summer, dense plumes of tiny white flowers

Habitat

Wet meadows, marsh edges, stream banks, and damp thickets across the northeastern and north-central United States and Canada

Acquisition

Grow or buy

Traditional remedies in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Traditional fever support

Eased occasional stomach upset

Old-fashioned settling tea

Attracts garden pollinators

Traditional uses

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Long before it carried the tidy name white meadowsweet, this modest wetland shrub was gathered by the Iroquois, Chippewa, and other Native American communities along the marshes and stream edges of the Northeast, who simmered its leaves and roots into teas for fevers, heart complaints, and stomach troubles. Its frothy white flower plumes made it a familiar sight at the edges of wet meadows every summer, easy to spot and easy to reach, which likely made it one of the more commonly used shrubs in everyday household remedies. It belongs to the same rose family as its more famous European cousin, true meadowsweet, and carries something of that plant's soft, hay-like sweetness and gentle traditional reputation as a calming, settling herb.

How to grow & use it

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The full apothecary for White Meadowsweet

Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Chamomile
✦Peppermint
✦Yarrow

Substitutes

✦True meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
✦Willow bark

Choose it when

“For a gentle, old-fashioned herb to calm an unsettled stomach or wind down a long day spent outdoors.”

Did you know?

The word aspirin has roots in this very genus: Bayer chemists coined the name from Spirsaure, or spiric acid, a salicylate compound first isolated from a shirt-tail cousin of white meadowsweet once classified as Spiraea ulmaria, now known as Filipendula ulmaria.

Safety

White meadowsweet contains salicylate compounds related to aspirin, so it should be avoided by anyone allergic to aspirin and should not be given to children or teens recovering from a viral illness like flu or chickenpox, due to the risk of Reye's syndrome. It should also be used cautiously with blood-thinning medication and avoided during pregnancy and breastfeeding.