CROWFOOT FAMILY RANUNCULACEAE 
EARLY MEADOW RUE 
Thalictrum dioicum L. 
The Early Meadow Rue is a perennial which frequents 
rocky woods from central Maine west and southwestward. Its 
smooth stems are I-2 feet high and its 2 or 3 leaves are several 
times ternate. The 
light green leaflets 
are. thin “and > 7-7- 
lobed. 
The dioecious 
flowers bloom during 
April and May and 
are pollinated by the 
wind. Stamens are 
numerous and as they 
become a little more 
mature than _ those 
shown they droop so 
that the pollen is 
easily .shaken out. 
There are no petals 
but the sepals, usu- 
ally 4, are purplish or 
greenish white and 
somewhat petallike. 
They often drop off as the flowers mature. Pistils are 4-15 
and they develop into strongly ribbed akenes. 
The Tall Meadow Rue, Thalictrum polygamum Muhl., which 
grows in sunny wet places, blooms later in the season, from July 
to September. It is a larger, stouter plant, 3-10 feet high, and its 
flowers are more conspicuous. The staminate flowers are usually 
white and the pistillate purplish. Rich bottomlands through- 
out the state are favorite habitations. 
The Waxy Meadow Rue, Thalictrum revolutum DC., has a 
stout purplish stem 3-7 feet high. The leaves are 3 or 4 times ternate, 
and the upper are sessile or short petioled. The leaflets are 1-3-lobed 
above the middle, dark green above and paler and waxy or glandular 
hairy beneath. The plant emits a strong heavy odor. The flowers 
are sometimes dioecious. Two distinguishing marks are the hairlike 
filaments which may be slightly thickened above, and the rolled 
margins of the leaves or leaflets. 
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