Habit: Perennial herb from caudex or rhizomes, generally glabrous; dioecious or flowers bisexual.
Stem: 1--few, generally erect; branches 0 or few.
Leaf: 1--4-ternate or pinnate, basal or basal and cauline, alternate, generally reduced distally on stem; leaflets wedge-shaped to +- round, entire, crenate, or lobed; pale green abaxially, generally green adaxially.
Inflorescence: raceme or panicle, axillary or terminal, generally erect, +- scapose or not; bracts simple to 1-ternate; pedicels generally erect in fruit.
Flower: sepals 4--5, +- green-white to +- purple, petal-like or not, generally early-deciduous; petals 0; stamens 8--many, generally > sepals, filaments flat or generally thread-like, anthers generally narrowly oblong, tip generally pointed; pistils (1)2--22.
Fruit: achene, compressed laterally or not, ribbed or veined, beaked.
Species In Genus: 120--200 species: temperate North America, Eurasia, Africa; some ornamental, medicinal.
Etymology: (Greek: name given by Dioscorides, Greek physician-botanist)
Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt & Dieter H. Wilken
Reference: Park & Festerling 1997 FNANM 3:258--271
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Thalictrum
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