Fendler's Meadowrue

Common Name(s):

Fendler's Meadowrue
Meadow Rue

Scientific Name:

Thalictrum fendleri Engelm. ex Gray

Scientific Name Synonyms:

None known

Symbol:

THFE

Description:

Life Span: Perennial

Origin: Native

Season: Cool

Growth Characteristics: An erect, mostly leafy-stemmed forb, growing 1 to 3 feet tall, with bluish-green foliage.

Flowers/Inflorescence: Meadowrue flowers lack petals and, although individually small, are often showy collectively in terminal clusters. The sepals are greenish, whitish, or purplish. Plants are usually dioecious (male and female flowers borne on different plants).

Fruits/Seeds: Single achene, which is compressed and strongly nerved.

Leaves: Alternate, ternately compounded, and columbine-like. Leaflets are usually three-lobed and often more or less toothed.

Ecological Adaptions:

Fendler's meadowrue grows in higher elevations (up to 10,000 ft) in shady, moist areas. It is usually under Aspen, and to a lesser extent, under shrubs, ponderosa pine, Englemann spruce, and other coniferous timber.

Soils: Moist, loam soils.

Associated Species: Aspen, peavine.

Uses and Management:

Fendler's meadowrue is worthless to poor in palatability for cattle and poor to fair for sheep. On very heavily grazed range, it is sometimes almost completely utilized. Close cropping of this species is indicative of an overstocked range.