Chinese Meadow Rue

Plants 0.6--2 m tall, glabrous. Stems branched. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Stipules semiorbicular, margin lobed or entire; petiole 1.4--8 cm; leaf blade 3- or 4-pinnate, ca. 40 cm; leaflet blade orbicular-ovate, obovate, or elliptic, 0.5--3 × 0.3--2(--2.5) cm, herbaceous, base rounded or cuneate, apex obtuse or acute, 3-lobed; lobes entire or 1--3-toothed; veins flat or raised abaxially. Inflorescence paniculate, 15--40 cm. Pedicel 8--25 mm. Sepals 4(or 5), purplish tinged, oblong or long elliptic to ovate or broadly so, 6--14 × 2.2--7 mm. Stamens many, 5--7 mm; filament filiform, dilated distally; anther oblong, 0.1--1.8 mm, apex mucronate, mucro 0.01--1.5 mm. Carpels 15--22; style short; stigma inconspicuous. Achene stipe erect, 1--3 mm; body obliquely obovoid, 5--8 × 2.5--3.2 mm; veins ca. 8. Fl. Jun--Sep.

W Guizhou, W Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.

* Forests, scrub, hills, grassy slopes, shady places, along streams, damp rocky ledges; 1800--3400 m.

Thalictrum delavayi, Chinese meadow-rue, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae native to China. Growing to 1.2 m (4 ft) tall by 60 cm (24 in) wide, it is a herbaceous perennial with leaves divided into many small leaflets, and panicles of lilac flowers with green or white stamens in summer.

The specific epithet delavayi honours the 19th century French explorer and botanist Père Jean Marie Delavay.

The cultivar 'Ankum' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

’Hewitt’s Double’