Thalictrum thalictroides
Thalictrum cooleyi
anemone meadow-rue, rue-anemone, windflower
Cooley's meadow-rue
black, tuberous.
erect, scapose, 10-30 cm, glabrous.
erect to reclining, slender, 60-200 cm.
blade 2x-ternately compound;
leaflets widely ovate or obovate to nearly rotund, apically 3-lobed, 8-30 mm wide, surfaces glabrous.
blade: proximal cauline mostly 2x-ternately compound, distal cauline usually ternately compound;
leaflets linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, apically occasionally 2-3-lobed, 12-68 × 1-12 mm, length (2.6-)4-26 times width, membranous to leathery, margins sometimes revolute, lobe margins entire;
surfaces abaxially glabrous.
umbels or flowers solitary, (1-)3-6-flowered;
involucral bracts usually 3-foliolate, petiolate and opposite, or sessile with leaflets appearing to be whorls of 6 petiolate leaves, otherwise similar to basal leaves.
racemes to panicles, elongate, few flowered;
peduncles and pedicels neither pubescent nor glandular.
sepals not caducous, white to pinkish, showy, elliptic to obovate, 5-18 mm, longer than stamens;
filaments narrowly clavate, 3-4 mm;
anthers 0.4-0.7 mm.
usually unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants;
sepals 4-5, white to yellowish in staminate flowers, greenish in pistillate flowers, obovate, 1.5 mm;
filaments white to purple, 2.5-6 mm;
anthers 0.9-2.5 mm.
(4-)8-12(-15), short-stipitate;
stipe 0.1-0.4 mm;
body ovoid to fusiform, 3-4.5 mm, prominently 8-10-veined.
5-6, sessile or nearly sessile;
stipe 0-0.4 mm;
body ellipsoid, 4.5-6 mm, prominently veined, glabrous;
beak 1.3-2.4 mm.
= 210.
Thalictrum thalictroides
Thalictrum cooleyi
In Thalictrum, T. thalictroides is unique in having umbelliform inflorescences and is therefore easy to identify. Based on this one distinction, many botanists still place it in the genus Anemonella. The leaflets, flowers, and fruits, however, are not unlike those of Thalictrum.
The Cherokee used infusions prepared from the roots of Thalictrum thalictroides to treat diarrhea and vomiting (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Thalictrum cooleyi occurs commonly on Grifton soil and is associated with some sort of disturbance, including clearings, edges of frequently burned savannahs, roadsides, and powerline rights-of-way that are maintained by fire or mowing. Silvicultural and agricultural practices and their associated suppression of fire have seriously affected populations of T. cooleyi. Furthermore, fruit production appears to be quite low in the species (S. W. Leonard 1987).
Leaves of Thalictrum cooleyi have fewer leaflets than other species of Thalictrum sect. Leucocoma.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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