Thalictrum thalictroides

Thalictrum thalictroides is a delicate spring perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae family, arising 10 to 25 centimetres tall from a cluster of small, tuberous, spindle-shaped roots. The leaves are basal and cauline, long-petioled, twice ternately compound, with rounded to broadly ovate leaflets 1 to 2.5 centimetres long that are shallowly three-lobed at the apex, glabrous and somewhat bluish-green, closely resembling those of true meadow-rue or columbine. The slender flowering stem bears a terminal whorl of three leaf-like bracts subtending a loose umbel of two to six flowers, each 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres across; the petal-like structures are actually five to ten white, occasionally pink-tinged, ovate sepals surrounding a central tuft of numerous pale yellow stamens and several green pistils. Flowering occurs in early to mid-spring, after the foliage emerges, and the plant goes dormant by early summer. Native to rich deciduous and mixed woodlands of eastern North America from southern Ontario and the New England states south to the Gulf Coast.