Acorus calamus Sweet-flag

A perennial, rhizomatous, aquatic plant native to Asia and North America, so named because its iris-like leaves have a sweet and pleasant, spicy smell. It grows in shallow, nutrient-rich water at the sides of canals, ponds and wet ditches and can be easily overlooked as Yellow Iris (Iris pseudoplatinus) or Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) if it isn't in flower. However the leaves of those species do not have an aromatic scent. The inflorescence is a yellow-green spadix, much like an Arum but without the distinctive hood (spathe). Flowering, if it occurs, takes place in early summer but European plants, which are triploids, are functionally sterile and do not produce fruit or seed. Propagation in British populations occurs by division of the rhizome. Sweet-flag has been used widely in alternative medicine in treatments and cures for a huge number of ailments and a number of interesting phytochemicals have been extracted from its leaves and rhizomes such as essential oils, flavones, phenyl propanoids and terpenes among others. It is also grown as an emergent aquatic plant in garden ponds.

Neophyte