A meadow is a commutative ring with an inverse operator satisfying 0⁻¹ = 0. We determine the initial algebra of the meadows of characteristic 0 and prove a normal form theorem for it. As an immediate consequence we obtain the decidability of the closed term problem for meadows and the computability of their initial object.

Adapting a claim of Kracht (Theor Comput Sci 354:131–141, 2006), we establish a characterization of the typable partial applicative structures.