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Thalictrum clavatum; photograph (c) Scott Morris, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Scott Morris, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-04-25

Thalictrum clavatum DC.

Mountain meadow-rue

Ranunculaceae · West Virginia, Georgia +5

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Thalictrum clavatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedThalictrum clavatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedThalictrum clavatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedThalictrum clavatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedThalictrum clavatum, photograph (c) River Ahlquist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thalictrum clavatum, photograph (c) willingarden, some rights reserved (CC BY) 76 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-13.8°C
Record low -28.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,556mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Thalictrum clavatum DC., known by its common name as the Mountain Meadow-Rue or Lady Rue, is a slender perennial forb of the Ranunculaceae family native to the South and Central Appalachian regions of the United States, namely the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of North Carolina and West Virginia. This dicotyledon species is commonly found within seepages, moist forests, spray cliffs at waterfalls, and brookbanks in mountainous regions at elevations of 500 meters. It is distinctive due to its green-hued, roughly 1.5 foot-tall form and its panicle inflorescence arrangement of white flowers that bloom within the months of May to July.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Thalictrum clavatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Thalictrum

Thalictrum is a genus of 120–200 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native mostly to temperate regions. Meadow-rue is a common name for plants in this genus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Thalictrum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,107 mm of 1,564 mm) takes 8 months, December to March and May to August. Mean temperature moves 19.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to February and June to September.

Rain

1,564 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,107 mm of it December to March and May to August. Wettest month July at 152 mm, driest month October at 93 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,250 mm to 1,973 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,556 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,564 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -13.8 °C, the absolute minimum -28.8 °C, 5,273 frost nights in 44 years, 119.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -5.4 °C to -1.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +487 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Thalictrum clavatum through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -3.1 °C; 1,564 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-28.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–39RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 212 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 4–88 / 5–1012 / 10–1517 / 14–2021 / 18–2424 / 22–2826 / 23–2925 / 23–2922 / 20–2617 / 15–2012 / 10–157 / 5–9
Night °C-3 / -5–-1-2 / -4–02 / -1–46 / 3–910 / 8–1315 / 12–1817 / 14–2016 / 14–1913 / 11–168 / 5–103 / 1–5-1 / -4–1
Rain mm128 / 97–166137 / 98–183141 / 111–176125 / 101–153132 / 114–154142 / 115–172152 / 126–184139 / 101–171123 / 88–15893 / 73–124116 / 95–152136 / 102–191
DLI16 / 14–1821 / 19–2228 / 26–2935 / 33–3638 / 37–3839 / 38–3937 / 37–3834 / 33–3529 / 28–3024 / 22–2517 / 16–1814 / 12–16
RH %58 / 57–6058 / 56–5957 / 55–5956 / 55–5860 / 58–6162 / 60–6363 / 60–6563 / 60–6562 / 59–6459 / 57–6058 / 57–5958 / 57–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 212 grid cells holding the 357 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1098:1935 (35.075, -83.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 212 distinct grid cells holding 357 of the 357 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1098:1935 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_-83.125, lapse-corrected +487 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1159 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeWest Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker35.482, -82.635 · in the densest population, 404 records (85% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 476 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 357 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 117 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 119 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 476 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Thalictrum clavatum, photograph 1did not loadThalictrum clavatum, photograph 2did not loadThalictrum clavatum, photograph 3did not loadThalictrum clavatum, photograph 4did not loadThalictrum clavatum, photograph 5did not loadThalictrum clavatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) River Ahlquist, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) willingarden, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Chelone lyonii Chelone lyonii Pink turtlehead Photo: CC0, author not statedPycnanthemum montanum Pycnanthemum montanum Appalachian mountainmint Photo: CC BY, novvictanRobinia viscosa Robinia viscosa Clammy locust Photo: CC BY, Daniel LinzbauerBoykinia aconitifolia Boykinia aconitifolia Brook saxifrage Photo: CC BY, Shelby Lyn SandersDiervilla sessilifolia Diervilla sessilifolia Bush-honeysuckle Photo: CC BY, Raven DandridgeMicranthes petiolaris Micranthes petiolaris Cliff Saxifrage Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Thalictrum 46 in the reference

Thalictrum actaeifolium Thalictrum actaeifolium Twinkling-star Photo: CC BY, Kim, Hyun-taeThalictrum alpinum Thalictrum alpinum Alpine meadow-rue Photo: CC BY, Ingvild RiskaThalictrum aquilegiifolium Thalictrum aquilegiifolium French meadow-rue Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovThalictrum baicalense Thalictrum baicalense Baical meadow-rue Photo: CC0, Фёдор Thalictrum calabricum Ranunculaceae Thalictrum chelidonii Thalictrum chelidonii Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Meneerke bloemThalictrum cooleyi Thalictrum cooleyi Cooley's meadow-rue Photo: CC0, author not statedThalictrum coreanum Thalictrum coreanum Korean meadow-rue Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEIThalictrum coriaceum Thalictrum coriaceum Maid of the mist Photo: CC BY, Michael J. PapayThalictrum cultratum Thalictrum cultratum Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoThalictrum dasycarpum Thalictrum dasycarpum Purple meadow-rue Photo: CC0, author not statedThalictrum delavayi Thalictrum delavayi Chinese meadow-rue Photo: CC BY-SA, Sergei Maslov all 47 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Physocarpum clavatum; Sumnera clavata; Thalictrum filipes; Thalictrum nudicaule. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
West Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky +4
Wild records
476 in range · 117 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_-83.125, lapse-corrected +487 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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