FRENCH MEADOW-RUE

Thalictrum aquilegiifolium

Buttercup Family [Ranunculaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july

status
statusZneophyte
flower
flower8mauve flower8white flower8pink flower8lilac
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZ4
type
typeZclustered
stem
stem8round
toxicity
toxicityZmedium

8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
A garden plant growing to 1m which sometimes escapes into the wild, but not in this case, it is still in a garden, but possibly escaped from someone else's garden to here.


8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
The flowers have 4 small petaloid sepals, which are concolorous with the stamens - one can be seen far right near the top.


8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
All that is immediately visible are the numerous brightly-coloured stamens.


8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
Several yet to open flowers still wrapped up in the 4 sepals lurk near the bottom of the photo.


8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
The flowers can be mauve, pink, lilac or white, here verging more towards lilac than mauve. The filaments of the stamens are concolorous with the anthers, mauve-lilac, but unusually are wider than the anthers.


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
Before they open the flowers are minuscule (far right) but grow larger (top) before beginning to open (still small - just south of top) until the thin purple filaments have grown very long (bottom left).


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
The filaments are purple and very long; tipped by a partly-flattened and slightly wider paddle-shaped anther which is of a deep-pink hue surrounded by a halo of white pollen grains.


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
In the centre are rear-views of the 4 striated purple sepals which enclose the elongating styles.


8th June 2016, a garden, Devon. Photo: © Rebecca Stanton
The leaves are 2 to 4 ternate and blue-green. They are typically slightly asymmetrical, as are the leaves of other Meadow-rues. They have zero lobes, or 3 or 5 lobes, but sometimes with an aberrant lobe making some of the leaves asymmetrical.


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are in opposite pairs as are the branches.


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
Both branch-pairs and leaflet-pairs are angled slightly forwards.


7th June 2017, a garden near The Burrs, Bury, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
Leaf stalks are also angled slightly upwards, although the leaves themselves try to keep more or less horizontal. The stalk junctions are coloured purple. Leaves have a faint and irregular net-vein patterning.


Easily mistaken for : other Meadow-rues but this one has purple flowers

Some similarities to : Columbine (Aqelegia vulgaris) [the leaves are similar and it is sometimes known as 'Columbine Meadow-rue'] but then it does live in the same family (Ranunculaceae) but not in the same Genus.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature :

No relation to : Rue or Goat's-Rue (Galega officinalis) nor Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) nor to Meadow-Foam (Limnanthes douglasii) or Meadow-grass (Poa bulbosa) [plants with similar names but which belong in differing families]. Nor is it related to Wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) which is a fern.

Like all Meadow-rues it is likely to be toxic.


  Thalictrum aquilegiifolium  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Ranunculaceae  

Distribution
 family8Buttercup family8Ranunculaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Thalictrum
Thalictrum
(Meadow-Rues)

FRENCH MEADOW-RUE

Thalictrum aquilegiifolium

Buttercup Family [Ranunculaceae]