Lesser Meadow-rue
Scientific name: Thalictrum minus L.
Diagnostic features
Scarcely to moderately rhizomatous.
Stems to 1.2m, erect or spreading, often zigzag, simple or branched.
Leaves 3-4-ternate to -pinnate.
Inflorescence compound.
Flowers in diffuse panicles, pale yellow, with more or less pendent stamens with narrow yellowish filaments.
Chromosome number: 2n=42.
Habitat
Native;in varied, usually calcareous habitats such as dunes, limestone cliffs and pavement, grassy banks and hedgerows, scrubland, and lakesides.
Distribution
Scattered in Britain and Ireland, locally common but absent from large areas incl. Central & Southeast England; grown in gardens and a frequent persister or throwout outside native range.
This species is keyed out at Page 1500 of the Text Key.
Note
A very variable and little understood species; up to 8 species or subspecies have been segregated in Britain, based mainly on characters of fruit, habit and indumentum, but until properly investigated they are not worth recognizing. The most distinctive are plants with glaucous leaves with dense stalked glands on lowerside that occur on coastal dunes in West & North Britain; they have been called Thalictrum minus L. subspecies arenarium (Butcher) A.R. Clapham. Garden plants increase the range of variation found. |
