Meadow Rue

Meadow rue is the common name for Thalictrum, a genus of between 120 and 200 species of herbaceous perennials in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, found mostly in temperate regions. Botanists find it a difficult genus, with species boundaries that are poorly understood and still in need of study. Despite the name, the meadow rues are not close kin of the true rue, which belongs to the family Rutaceae; they only resemble it in their compound leaves, divided twice or three times over. Some species are pollinated by the wind and others by insects, and besides alkaloids the plants produce a wide range of other compounds, among them triterpenoids, flavonoids and cyanogenic glycosides. Gardeners grow them as ornamentals for their airy sprays of delicately coloured flowers, and several cultivars hold the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Cunningham records that Native Americans wore it around the neck as an all-purpose protective amulet, and that it is carried to draw love; he also gives it a power of divination and the folk name flute plant.