CROWFOOT FAMILY 



RANUNCULACEAE 



EARLY MEADOW RUE 



Thalictriim 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 3-7- 

 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 J.uly 

 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. Tbe 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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