Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Columbines have showy nodding flowers with each petal having a long spur at the back forming a tube. Wild Columbine is a native erect perennial forb growing on slender green to reddish-green stems 1 to 3 feet high. There may be sparse branching near the top. Stems may or may not have fine hair.

Leaves: The compound leaves are divided into 3-leaflet groups, each leaflet with clefts at the tip creating small lobes. Leaves will be on long stalks, enlarged where they meet the stem. Upper stem leaves can be much reduced however, with short or no stalks at all. Leaf surfaces are without hair but may be slightly whitish or even a little sticky. Basal leaves only are produced the first year. Stem leaves of later years are alternate.

The inflorescence has solitary flowers on long stalks at the top of the stem.

The flowers are pendent, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches long, with both the calyx and the corolla colored. There are 5 sepals, reddish in color with rounded tips, the tip area yellow. The sepal tips diverge outward laterally from the calyx and are alternate in placement with the 5 reddish petals that also have yellow tips with the yellow area much larger than that of the sepals. The petals have a long nectar spur, abruptly narrowed toward the base; these stand erect at the upward end of the flower. At the other end there are several styles, 20+ stamens of different lengths, with yellow anthers, all protruding from the corolla. The stamens close to the pistil are longer than the others.

Seed: Fertile flowers mature to a brown pod of 5 follicles, which when mature, spread open at the tip to release small shiny black seeds. Each follicle has a long thin beak. Columbine self-seeds and from a single plant you can acquire quite a patch. Seeds can be easily gathered from the drying stem and sown where plants are desired - they require 60 days of cold stratification - just plant in the fall for germination in the Spring. Wild Columbine is usually pollinated by hummingbirds and there are four known species of bees that can also pollinate the plant.

Habitat: Wild Columbine is a versatile plant, flowering in both sun and bright shade, doing best in loamy soil, mesic to dry moisture conditions. There is a vertical underground stem (a caudex) and in mid-summer the plant may die back to the caudex. A plant can live for 3 to 5 years. First year growth from seed is usually just a basal clump which can be easily transplanted. It survives in a wide range of habitats within USDA hardiness zones 3 to 8. Read Eloise Butler's notes below.

Names: The genus Aquilegia is taken from the Latin word for eagle, aquila, whose claws are said to resemble the petals of the flower. All species of this genus are Columbines. The species name, canadensis, means 'of Canada' where the species was first typed. The author name for the plant classification, 'L.' is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy. The Ranunculaceae family was formerly called the Crowfoot Family - now - Buttercup.

Comparisons: While there are native North American Columbines in other colors, especially the enchanting Colorado blue, A. caerulea, there are also available from the nursery trade plants in various colors, many of which are often crosses with the European Columbine, A. vulgaris. One must check the parentage to be certain you have a native species.