What's in a Prague street name

Tavolníková was built in 1990.

‘Tavolník’ is Czech for ‘spiraea’, also known as ‘meadowsweets’ or ‘steeplebushes’, a genus of plants belonging to the rose family.

They’re deciduous shrubs, found across the northern hemisphere, but especially in Eastern Asia. They are not generally eaten – although Native Americans used to – and are frequently used as ornamental plants.

Spiraea contain salts and/or esters of salicylic acid (C₇H₆O₃). One genus formerly believed to fall within the spiraea family, Filipendula ulmaria (or mead wort), was the source of acetylsalicylic acid – which you might know better as ‘aspirin’, which = a(cetyl) + Spirsäure (meadowsweet in German) + -in.