Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Rue anemoneHere’s a beautiful, delicate spring ephemeral found in the eastern and central portions of North American woodlands:  Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides).

The immature flower has greenish-yellow stamens clustered around the white stigmas as the flower petals open.  Surrounding the flower, you can see some of the leaflets of Rue anemone’s compound leaf.

Rue anemoneThis very close view of the flower’s reproductive parts shows the stamen’s anthers spread out around the central white-tipped pistils.  In this case, there are more than a dozen pistils.  Some Rue anemone flowers only have three (or sometimes just one) pistil.

Rue anemoneAs the days go by, the fertilized flower develops seed capsules.  Here’s a close-up view of some seed capsules.

Rue anemoneSince the center flower was the first to bloom, it is the first of the grouping of three flowers to develop seed capsules.  You can see this in the next image.

Rue anemoneWithin a few weeks after these plants bloom, they develop seeds, their leaves die, and the plants fade away until next spring.

Rue anemoneTo learn more about Rue anemone throughout its short life cycle — and to see some great  images of Rue anemone variations — watch this video:

This entry was posted in Plant Identification videos, Plant portraits. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

  1. Pingback: Mystery plant 021 | Identify that Plant

  2. Meinan Wang says:

    It is a amazing video. I learned a lot. I found the similar species of Thalictrum in Pullman Washington. It is an alternate host of an unknown leaf rust pathogen. I collected the fungal aeciospores from Thalictrum in Late May to early July. After isolated DNA and sequenced ITS gene sequences, I guess it is an unknown leaf rust (Puccinia) pathogen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.