Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Appalachian Tall Meadow-rue - Thalictrum hepaticum Greene

Section 6 » Family Ranunculaceae

Author	Greene
Distribution	This is a controversial taxon that is not accepted by most references/authorities, though Weakley (2024) reluctantly lists it as a species, at least for now. He states "Plants tentatively placed here have been problematic", and also "More study is needed; the taxon is here provisionally accepted in order to draw attention to the problem." SERNEC lists specimens for Watauga, Stanly, and Macon counties, with Stanly seemingly out of range. Weakley's (2024) map shows it limited in NC to the Mountains. For now, owing to uncertainties about identification, the website editors are adding the two mountain counties but withholding the Piedmont one. Weakley (2024) indicates it as occurring from "PA south to n. GA and se. TN, strictly or primarily in the Appalachians."
Abundance	Weakley's map shows it as "rare" in the Mountains. The state rank is hereby given as [SU] -- State Unknown (unrankable), as opposed to [SR] -- State Reported. It is not in the NatureServe database.
Habitat	"Seepage areas" (Weakley 2018).
Phenology	Flowers and fruits from May to July.
Identification	Weakley's key places it next to H. revolutum, with the difference that this species has "Anthers 0.5-1.2 mm long; stigmas 0.6-2.2 mm long" versus "Anthers 1.5-2.8 mm long; stigmas (1.5-) 2.0-3.5 mm long" in T. revolutum. See that species account for more identification of this species pair.
Taxonomic Comments	Some authors suggest that it is a part of T. revolutum, but another (or others) have it listed as a variety of T. pubescens.
Other Common Name(s)	None?
State Rank	[SU]
Global Rank	GNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

County Map - click on a county to view source of record.