When a Meadow-rue resembles a Meadow-rue
Rue-anemone is easily confused with wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), because the flowers look very similar, and both are small spring ephemerals. Both have five or more white (sometimes pink in rue-anemone) petal-like sepals, and many stamens and carpels. The leaves are quite different though, and the leaves of rue-anemone are divided into stalked, three-lobed leaflets, and look rather like those of the other meadow-rues (Thalictrum spp.), which mostly have inconspicuous, wind-pollinated flowers.
When taxonomists decide that a species belongs to a different genus than formerly thought, it generally keeps the original epithet (the second part of the scientific name that indicates the species). Rue-anemone was named Anemone thalictroides by Linnaeus, suggesting it is an Anemone that resembles a Thalictrum. Many people of our era learned this plant as Anemonella thalictroides, or a small Anemone -like plant that resembles a Thalictrum. Recently, opinion has shifted toward including it in the genus Thalictrum, resulting in the ironic name Thalictrum thalictroides; a Thalictrum that resembles a Thalictrum
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