Sweet Flag Acorus calamus Acoraceae

This plant of shallow wetlands was once used extensively by both colonists & Native Americans, the whole plants gives off a sweet lemony-spicy scent when bruised or crushed & leaves were used as a strewing herb – placed upon dirt or other primitive floors to give off a pleasant scent when trod upon, from May to August it produces 4” long spadices of tiny tightly packed greenish-yellow flowers jutting almost straight out from the bladelike stem, spreads by dense creeping rhizomes, grows well submerged in or on the edge of shallow still or slow-moving water, clay and salt tolerant, a good rain garden plant.

1-4’ tall
Plant Hardiness Zones: 4a-9b
Perennial
Deer Resistant

Native Range: NS & ME to MN, south to GA and TX, plus a few populations in WA, OR & CA

Return to Toadshade Wildflower Farm main page