Into the Cothi hell-pool
by Jim Perrin from on (#KGA9)
Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire Thunderous and dark, it's one of those places where the forces of landscape are gathered into fearsome expression
The lane from Ffarmers descends to the afon Cothi and turns sharply north-east towards Rhandirmwyn. Every verge, every marshy field corner hereabouts billows with creamy blossom of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). The air is heavy with its honeyed astringency - the defining smell of summer and Wales, lingering into autumn, carrying a powerful synaesthetic charge.
Salicylic acid was first identified from meadowsweet root, and synthesised as aspirin in 1897. Far back beyond that date, the plant's alternative name - meadwort - suggests its old usage. Traces of it have been found at beaker burials, in bronze age tombs.
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