Torrey’s Meadow Rue is a perennial herb that grows in Southern, Central, and Northern California, especially in the Peninsular Ranges’ Southern Oak Woodlands. It grows in moist places, often in colonies along stream courses and on shaded slopes in Oak Woodland and Mixed Evergreen Forest habitats.
Torrey’s Meadow Rue is used in woodland and shade gardens as a perennial background plant. It has beautiful lacy blue-green foliage that unfurls from purplish shoots.
The tiny unisexual flowers are produced atop 2 – 4 ft. tall stalks on separate plants. The male flowers are showier with dangling cream-yellow colored stamens; the female flowers are clusters of greenish pistils.
It goes dormant in late summer when it is allowed to go dry.
This Meadow Rue is easy to grow, in part sun to shade. It grows with occasional to regular irrigation, and can be drought-tolerant once established.