Tall Meadow-Rue Traditional Cache

The Tall Meadow-Rue is a bit away from the trail, but if you come while it's still blooming, you can't miss it. It's the white froth to the west. The cache is by the trail, so don't go bushwhacking!

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

Thalictrum is a taxonomically difficult genus with poorly understood species boundaries; it is in need of further taxonomic and field research for clarification.

Despite their common name of "meadow-rue", Thalictrum species are unrelated to the true rue (family Rutaceae), but resemble its members in having the petiole twice or thrice divided.

Meadow-rue leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound, and commonly glaucous blue-green in colour.

The flowers are small and apetalous (no petals), but have numerous long stamens, often brightly white, yellow, pink or pale purple, and are produced in conspicuous dense inflorescences. In some species (e.g. T. chelidonii, T. tuberosum), the sepals are large, brightly coloured and petal-like, but in most they are small and fall when the flower opens or soon after.

Meadow-rues are usually found in shaded or damp locations, with a sub-cosmopolitan range throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and also south to southern Africa and tropical South America, but absent from Australasia. They are most common in temperate regions of the world, twenty-two species are found in North America.

Thalictrum polygamum (tall meadow-rue; also Thalictrum pubescens), is a herbaceous perennial plant native to wet areas in eastern North America. Its common name is from its height — up to 8 feet.

Taller than other varieties it has plumes of flowers that lack petals. The flowers are described as starry bursts of threadlike stamens. The leaves are divided and subdivided into many roundish three-lobed leaflets. Meadow-rue blooms from July to September. Its height is typically between 3 and 8 feet.

The cache is a "small", camoed pill bottle that is tied in. This one has a tiny knob on the cap and an arrow to show where to push up to open. Please make sure it's sealed all around when you are done. It contains a rolled log, with rubber band and a zip lock plastic bag. Please keep track of it all, so you can replace it as found. Your finger for the rubber band; pocket? for the little baggie? (I had a hard time finding the baggie, when I put out the cache. Luckily not windy today, as I found it on the ground behind me.) BYOP and please, no tweezers, they kill the plastic. The cache is next to the trail, not by the flowers. It's the Jim Schug trail in Dryden, with several access points.