Thalictrum

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).[4]

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. Typical natural products found in this genus are benzylisoquinoline alkaloids such as magnoflorine and the structurally related alkaloid berberine.[5]

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  Thalictrum aquilegifolium
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  Thalictrum chelidonii
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  Thalictrum coreanum
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  Thalictrum dasycarpum
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  Thalictrum delavayi flowers
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  Early meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum)
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  Thalictrum filamentosum
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  Thalictrum flavum leaves
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  Thalictrum glaucum flowers
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  Thalictrum kiusianum
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  Female flowers of Thalictrum occidentale
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  Thalictrum rochebrunnianum
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  Rue-anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)
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  Thalictrum tuberosum
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  Thalictrum urbainii