veiny meadow-rue

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FAC - Facultative

FAC - Facultative

FACW - Facultative wetland

Veiny meadow-rue is a 12″ to 40″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises from the upturned end of a rhizome. Staminate flowers (male) and pistillate flowers (female) are borne on separate plants.

Stems are erect, hairless or nearly hairless.

Stem leaves are alternate. Stem leaves below the inflorescence are on leaf stalks. Those subtending the inflorescence branches are stalkless. They are 3 or 4 times ternately compound—divided into 3 main divisions (ternate), each division further divided into 3 segments (biternate), each segment further divided into 3 leaflets (triternate), or once more divided. The leaflets are ⅓″ to 1¾″ wide and wider than long. They are round or inversely egg-shaped with the attachment at the narrow end. The leaflets have round-toothed lobes. The upper surface is hairless. The lower surface is hairless but has short, rounded, nipple-like glandular bumps or projections.

The inflorescence is a dense, narrow, cluster with ascending branches that appears at the end of the stems and branches.

Male flowers have 5 greenish-white, spreading, petal-like sepals. There are no petals. They droop at the end of short stalks. The sepals often drop off early leaving about 12 stamens with colored, not white, filaments and anthers. The flowers do not produce petals or nectar to attract insects. They are wind pollinated.

The fruit is an achene about ⅛″ long.

12″ to 40″

Greenish-white

Early meadow-rue (Thalictrum doicum) flowers bloom earlier, April to May.

Purple meadow-rue (Thalictrum dasycarpum) is a much taller plant, 3′ to 5′ at maturity. Middle and upper leaves are stalkless. The leaflets are as long as wide, or, more commonly, longer than wide. The leaflet lobes are untoothed or occasionally have a few additional teeth.

Waxy leaf meadow-rue (Thalictrum revolutum) stems are glaucous. Leaflet margins are rolled backward to the underside. The lower leaflet surface is covered with glandular hairs giving it a whitish, waxy appearance, and has a conspicuous network of raised veins.

Wet to moderate moisture. Forests, shores, river banks, stream banks. Full to partial sun.

June to July

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Minnesota’s veiny meadow rue has been classified as Thalictrum venulosum, Thalictrum venulosum var. confine, or sometimes Thalictrum confine. The names were used inconsistently. A study (Mitchell, 1988) was conducted in an attempt to resolve the longstanding confusion. T. confine was traditionally distinguished from T. venulosum by the larger fruit that is hooked at the top (falcate). The study determined that the fruits were variable and close enough in morphology as to not warrant separation. The author chose to recognize a single variable (polymorphic) species, T. venulosum.