Aquilegia vulgaris L.

Columbine, European columbine

Columbines are European natives. They have become naturalized, escaping gardens in parts of eastern North America. These beautiful flowers have nearly innumerable cultivars.

Plants: Forms mounds of think, leafy stems 12–28″ (30–72 cm) tall.

Leaves: Divided into three lobes, each also three-lobed (“twice ternately compound,” if you prefer fancier talk). Each leaf is 4–12″ (10–30 cm) long. Leaflets are ½–1¾″ (1.5–4.7 cm).

Flowers: Flowers are nodding, with highly distinctive rear-facing spurs, often curled inward, resembling a the claws of an eagle. (The genus Aquilegia derives from the Latin for an eagle’s claw, though it could also refer to claw-like groups of fruit.) Sepals are lanceolate, ½–⅞ ⨉ ¼–⅜″ (1.5–2.5 cm ⨉ 8–12 mm). Petals are ⅜–½ ⨉ ⅛–⅜″ (1–1.3 cm ⨉ 6–10 mm), with 13 or more stamens ¼–½″ (9–13 mm) long. The original wild flowers are blue or purple, but escaped cultivars may also be white, pink, red, or other colors. Flowers appear from May to July.

Fruits: Dry seedpods 11.8–102.4 mils (0.3–2.6 mm) long.

Habitats: Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats), forest edges.

Edibility: Poisonous. Raw plants contain toxic alkaloids.

Online References:

 

Aquilegia vulgaris description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

© FloraFinder.org. All rights reserved.