Stems glabrous, erect, 1 to 2 feet high, slender and leafy from brown perennial roots. Leaves three to four-ternate. Leaflets thin, pale beneath, orbicular or broader, often cordate and the terminal one somewhat cuneate five to nine-lobed. Flowers dioecious, greenish or greenish yellow, drooping or spreading; panicle elongated, of numerous lateral corymbs or umbels; sepals usually four, blunt; petals none; stamens numerous, filaments longer than the sepals; anthers linear, blunt, longer than the filaments. Achenes in fruit ovoid, sessile or minutely stipitate, strongly ribbed, much longer than the style.

In woods and on shaded banks, Maine to Alabama, Saskatchewan and Missouri. Flowering in April and May.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 71

Early Meadow Rue - Thalictruiti dioicum