Lacy perennial adds delicate touch to landscape

Found from northern California to southern Alaska and east to Wyoming, Western Meadowrue (Thalictrum occidentale) is a beautiful, lacy looking perennial herb common in shady conifer forest understories and in moist meadows. It grows erect to 3 or 4 feet tall and spreads slowly. This member of the Buttercup family is dioecious, meaning that the male and female flowers are produced on separate plants.

A mid-summer bloomer, both male and female Meadowrue flowers have no petals and appear in clusters with their reproductive parts prominantly displayed. The male flowers have as many as 20-30 long, yellow and purple hanging stamens that dangle in the breeze under a cap of green sepals like mineature fringed lampshades. The female flowers present immature fruits on up to 15 reddish purple styles branching out in star-shaped structures resembling a fireworks display. Male and female plants often grow in separate patches and rely on the wind to blow pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers for fertilization. These delicate flower clusters are not big and colorful, but are usually numerous and, up close, very interesting.

Light green leaves are thin with leaflets in threes growing alternately along narrow stems. The individual leaves are oval or heart-shaped and often lobed or deeply notched. They resemble columbine leaves, another member of the Buttercup family.The foliage fades to yellow in the fall adding color and texture in a garden setting.

Meadowrue has many household uses. Blackfoot tribes made perfume and smudge from the sweet smelling seeds and flowers and mixed powdered seeds with water as a hair and body cosmetic. Seeds were used as a deodorant for clothing and as an insect repellant. Pemmican, dried meats and broths were spiced with Meadowrue seeds. Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked and taste sweet.

Medicinally, Native Americans made a tea of the seeds to treat chest pains and the Bella Coola tribes chewed the root for headache, eye trouble, sore legs and to loosen phlegm and improve blood circulation. A poultice of mashed roots was applied to open wounds to aid in healing. Meadowrue root contains berberine, a chemical with valuable antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

These uses of Meadowrue are best left to experts because some members of the Buttercup family are poisonous and may be hard for the beginnger to distinguish from Western Meadowrue.

In a garden, Meadowrue works well in a shady, moist spot, adding light color and delicate texture to your landscape. It tolerates seasonal flooding if you have an area that's boggy in the spring.

Meadowrus is growing in the interior rain forest habitat in the North Idaho Native Plant Arboretum, but it is the closely related T. dasycarpum species or Purple Meadowrue. Open to the public, parking for the arboretum is at 611 S. Ella Ave. in Sandpoint. Western Meadowrue is described and pictured on Page 167 of the KNPS publication, "Landscaping with Native Plants in the Idaho Panhandle", available at local bookstores and the Bonner County History Museum.

Native Plant Notes are created by the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society. To learn more about KNPS and the North Idaho Native Plant Arboretum, visit www.nativeplantsociety.org.