Thalictrum debile Buckley

Southern Meadow Rue; Trailing Meadow Rue

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Southern Meadow Rue is a native herbaceous perennial in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is native to central and northern Alabama, primarily in the Black Belt region and the Tennessee Valley. Southern Meadow Rue occurs in rich hardwood forests and prairie or glade edges in areas with calcareous soils. It is a perennial from a cluster of tuberous-fusiform roots. The stems are reclining to decumbent, branched, and glabrous. Leaves are alternate, petiolate (those near the end of the stem are sessile), 1-3 times ternately compound, and glabrous. The leaflets are ovate to orbicular with 3-7 apical lobes. The unisexual flowers are produced in few-flowered terminal and axillary panicles. The flowers lack petals and the sepals are whitish. The fruit is a sessile beaked achene with 6-8 prominent veins. Southern Meadow Rue is listed as a S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G2 species (imperiled globally because of rarity). This species is easily overlooked. It is early flowering and soon obscured by other vegetation.—A. Diamond

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Native S2 (State Rank) G2 (Global Rank)

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