Thalictrum kiusianum - Meadow-rue

Thalictrum kiusianum is a true little gem. This beautiful Japanese meadow rue with a creeping habit offers from April to June, and again in September, a profusion of small flowers in soft pink pompoms with mauve highlights. It slowly forms a charming cushion of bluish-green fern leaves, very floriferous, perfect for rockeries and borders, in damp and semi-shaded areas of the garden, in fertile soil.

Thalictrum kiusianum is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Ranunculaceae family, native to the moist and humid mountainous areas of Japan (mainly from the island of Kyushu, located in southern Japan) and Korea. The plant forms a 12 cm (5in) high cushion, which slowly spreads through rhizomes to eventually form a small carpet with a diameter of 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20in). Its highly dissected leaves, with toothed edges, reach a length of 12 cm (5in). They resemble those of columbines or ferns. Their colour is a bluish-green tinted with bronze. The flowering starts in April, continues until June, slows down during the summer, and then resumes in September with the return of cool weather. Tiny lavender-pink flowers, grouped in corymbs on slender stems, bloom above the foliage. Each flower measures 8 mm (0in) in diameter, is without petals and double-star shaped. This species is mostly dioecious, meaning that male flowers and female flowers are borne by separate individuals. Only certain plants bear both male and female flowers.

This little pigamon is primarily a plant for woodland, rockery or damp and shaded borders. It gracefully fills the moist gaps between mossy stones, old walls, and slightly dark walls. It also fits perfectly in a wild garden, like bleeding hearts or hellebores. It can be paired with other perennials that are not afraid of competition from tree or shrub roots. Accompany it with Epimedium, Uvularia grandiflora, hardy fuchsias, creeping bugleweed, Japanese anemones, the Balkan foxglove, Tricyrtis, and a carpet of periwinkles.