Purple meadowrue purple meadow-rue

Description

Thalictrum dasycarpum, known as tall meadow rue and purple meadow-rue, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to North America. Thalictrum dasycarpum, known as tall meadow rue and purple meadow-rue, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to North America. Tall meadow rue has a broad distribution across central North America: north to Yukon, west to Idaho, south to Texas, and east to New York state. It is found in a variety of wetland habitats, from swamps and wet meadows to prairies, as well as riparian woodlands. Thalictrum is a genus of 120-200 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native mostly to temperate regions. Meadow-rue is a common name for plants in this genus. Thalictrum is a taxonomically difficult genus with poorly understood species boundaries; it is in need of further taxonomic and field research for clarification. Despite their common name of "meadow-rue", Thalictrum species are not closely related to the true rue (family Rutaceae), but resemble its members in having compound leaves twice or thrice divided. Meadow-rue leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound, and commonly glaucous blue-green in colour. The flowers are small and apetalous (no petals), but have numerous long stamens, often brightly white, yellow, pink or pale purple, and are produced in conspicuous dense inflorescences. In some species (e.g. T. chelidonii, T. tuberosum), the sepals are large, brightly coloured and petal-like, but in most they are small and fall when the flower opens or soon after. Meadow-rues are usually found in shaded or damp locations, with a sub-cosmopolitan range throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and also south to southern Africa and tropical South America, but absent from Australasia. They are most common in temperate regions of the world; twenty-two species are found in North America. Anemophily (wind pollination) is a characteristic of some members this genus, as seen in Thalictrum fendleri and Thalictrum dioicum. Others, such as Thalictrum sparsiflorum, are entomophilous (pollinated by insects). Thalictrum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Setaceous Hebrew Character moth. Thalictrum species have been extensively studied by chemists.