Wright's meadow-rue

Thalictrum fendleri, known as Fendler's meadow-rue or Wright's meadow-rue, is a dioecious perennial herb in the Ranunculaceae family, native to the mountains of the western United States and northern Mexico, where it inhabits moist coniferous forests, aspen groves and shaded streambanks at middle to high elevations. The plant rises 50 to 150 centimetres from a stout, branching rhizome, with slender, erect, branching stems that are glabrous and often glaucous. The leaves are alternate and divided two to four times into ternate sets of small, delicate, rounded to obovate leaflets 1 to 3 centimetres across, with three to five shallow lobes at the apex and a dull bluish-green upper surface. The inflorescences are open, airy panicles of small unisexual flowers lacking conspicuous petals; staminate flowers display drooping clusters of pale yellowish-green to purplish stamens, while pistillate flowers bear small clusters of plumose stigmas. Fruits are ribbed, ovoid achenes.