CALAMUS (Sweet Flag) 

 Acorus calamus L. 



April - May Fragrant along the pond's edge and in the pasture 



Swamps, ponds rividet grow the beds of calamus, the sweet flag. 



Shining and dark bright green, the ridged, sword-like 

 leaves quiver in the wind and rain, liend flat in a storm, rise again, or 

 are crushed where the cows on a hot da)- bed down in the cool and 

 aromatic leaves. 



Calamus grows in broad colonies, not as a single plant. The traveling 

 rootstock sends up stalk after stalk; the colony becomes an underground 

 mat of white roots with hundreds upon hundreds of leaves standing erect. 



In spring there emerge from certain stalks — they look like leaves 

 l)ut properly are not — spikes of yellow, pollen-laden flowers. These are 

 much like the lower part of the spadix of the jack-in-the-pulpit, to which 

 family it belongs, but there is no spathe to curl itself over or around 

 the spadix. The elongation of the green flowering stalk, however, may 

 be called a spathe of sorts, though it does not enclose the spadix at all. 

 Rather, this juts from the stem and gleams in the sun, is host to early 

 insects and then, in sunmier, forms a tight club of green fruits. 



The entire calamus plant is aromatic from the root to the tip of 

 the leaf and the flower itself. It is a pleasant fragrance, enhanced when 

 chewed, and the root for many generations since the time of the Indians 

 has been used as an aid in relieving the discomfort of dyspepsia and 

 colic. As such it is even now in the pharmacies under the old name of 

 calamus. 



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