11. Thalictrum minus L., Sp. Pl. 546. 1753. Boiss., Fl. Or. 1:8. 1767, Hook.f. & Thoms. in Hook.f., fl. Brit. ind. 1:14. 1872, Aitch. & Hemsl. in J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 28:30. 1881, Lecoyer in Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 24:199. 1885, Blatter & Fernandez in .1. Bomb. Nat. Dist. Soc. 36 (1-2):668. 1933, Nevskii in Komarov, Fl. URSS. 7:524. 1937, Tamura in Kitamura, Fl. Afghan. 131. 1960, Davis, Coode & Cullen in Davis, Fl. Turk. 1:202. 1965, Stewart, Ann. Catalogue Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 276. 1972.
HARALD RIEDL and YASIN J. NASIR
Naturhistorisches Museum, Botanische Abteilung, Wien, Austria.
and
National Herbarium, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Perennial, 30-150 cm high, stem glabrous, rarely glandular, branching from the middle or above, usually striate. Leaves broadly ovate to ovate-triangular in outline, petiolate or subsessile, 3-4-ternate or pinnate, leaflets broadly ovate or suborbicular, stalked, 10-35 x 5-30 mm, subcordate, rounded or tru ncate at base, lobed in the upper half, lobes sometimes crenate or subdentate, dark green on the upper surface, pale-green on the lower surface, almost glabrous. Inflorescence a dense or lax, partly leafy panicle with long branches. Bracts ternate with ovate leaflets or entire, linear. Pedicel length very variable, average 10-30 mm. Flowers greenish or yellowish, pendant, later erect. Sepals 4, very small, elliptic. Filaments whitish, longer than anthers, anthers yellow, distinctly mucronate, tips straight or ± inflexed. Carpels 3-15, erect at maturity, sessile, slightly compressed or not, broadly ovoid or oblong-ovoid, ribs scarcely prominent. Style distinctly shorter than the achenes.
Lectotype: Described from Europe, Hb. Linn. 713/12. (IDC Micro Edition, Card. 365: 6. Gotlandix).
An extremely widespread and variable plant, It is taxonomically difficult to elucidate the different subspecific taxa. Distributed in most parts of Europe and Asia except arctic and tropical areas.
