Dropwort - Filipendula vulgaris

Medium to tall, tufted plant with erect stems. Leaves pinnate with 8 to 25 pairs of toothed leaflets with smaller leaflets in between. Flowers pale creamy white, purplish beneath, 8 to 16 mm, in dense, flat headed clusters, usually with six petals.

A photograph of the plant in its habitat

Dry grassy habitats, roadside verges etc on calcareous soils.

Flowers June to September.

Perennial.

Widespread in the southern half of Britain but rather local even here. Scarcer further north.

Infrequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 28 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as occasional, nearly scarce