Aquilegia coerulea

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Aquilegia coerulea
Heavycolumbinebloom.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Aquilegia
Species:
A. coerulea
Binomial name
Aquilegia coerulea

Aquilegia coerulea, the Colorado blue columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to the Rocky Mountains, USA. Aquilegia coerulea is the state flower of Colorado. [2]

Contents

The Latin specific name coerulea (or caerulea) means "sky blue". [3]

Sequencing of the genome of this species has advanced the study of the evolution of basal eudicots. [4] [5]

Description

It is a herbaceous perennial plant often found at elevations of 2,100 to 3,700 m (6,900 to 12,100 ft). It grows to 20–60 cm (7.9–23.6 in) tall, with flowers sprouting in inflorescences produced from the short apical meristem. [6] The flowers are very variable in color, from pale blue (as in the species name coerulea) to white, pale yellow and pinkish; very commonly the flowers are bicolored, with the sepals a different shade to the petals. They consist of five petals, five sepals and an ovary surrounded by 50 to 130 stamens. Five long spurs hang below the calyx and contain nectar at their tips, accessible only to hawkmoths. In addition to hawkmoths, pollinators for this flower include bumble-bees, solitary bees and syrphid flies. [7] Its native habitats include moist woods and open mountain meadows. [8]

Distribution

It is native to Colorado, south eastern Idaho, southern Montana, Wyoming, northern New Mexico, and Utah. [9]

Cultivation

Aquilegia coerulea is used as an ornamental plant in gardens. Its natural variability is exploited in the selection of numerous cultivars in different shades. Cultivars include 'Origami' [10] and 'Crimson Star'.

Related Research Articles

<i>Aquilegia</i> Genus of perennial plants (columbine)

Aquilegia is a genus of about 60–70 species of perennial plants that are found in meadows, woodlands, and at higher altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known for the spurred petals of their flowers.

<i>Aquilegia formosa</i> Western North American species of columbine

Aquilegia formosa, the crimson columbine, western columbine, or (ambiguously) "red columbine", is a common wildflower native to western North America, from Alaska to Baja California, and eastward to Montana and Wyoming.

<i>Aquilegia canadensis</i> Common North American species of columbine

Aquilegia canadensis, the Canadian or Canada columbine, eastern red columbine, or wild columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is an herbaceous perennial native to woodland and rocky slopes in eastern North America, prized for its red and yellow flowers. It readily hybridizes with other species in the genus Aquilegia.

<i>Impatiens capensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Impatiens capensis, the orange jewelweed, common jewelweed, spotted jewelweed, jewelweed, spotted touch-me-not, or orange balsam, is an annual plant in the family Balsaminaceae that is native to North America. It is common in bottomland soils, ditches, and along creeks, often growing side by side with its less common relative, yellow jewelweed.

<i>Impatiens pallida</i> Species of flowering plant

Impatiens pallida, with the common names pale jewelweed, pale touch-me-not, or yellow jewelweed, is a flowering annual plant in the family Balsaminaceae native to Canada and the United States. It grows in moist to wet soils, generally alongside the closely related Impatiens capensis, producing flowers from midsummer through fall.

<i>Drymocallis arguta</i> Species of flowering plant

Drymocallis arguta, commonly known as the tall cinquefoil, prairie cinquefoil, or sticky cinquefoil, is a perennial herbaceous plant native to North America. It was formerly included with the typical cinquefoils in the genus Potentilla.

<i>Hyles lineata</i> Species of moth

Hyles lineata, also known as the white-lined sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. They are sometimes known as the hummingbird moth because of their bird-like size and flight patterns.

<i>Phlox divaricata</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william, is a species of flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae, native to forests and fields in eastern North America.

<i>Nemastylis geminiflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Nemastylis geminiflora, commonly known as prairie celestial, celestial, prairie pleatleaf, or celestial lily is a perennial herb in the Iridaceae (iris) family. It is native to the south-central area of the United States.

<i>Lathyrus niger</i> Species of legume

Lathyrus niger, also known as black pea, blackening flat pea and black bitter vetch, is a perennial legume that is native to Europe. Its common name is reference to the blackening of the plant's foliage as it dies.

<i>Phlox pilosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox pilosa, the downy phlox or prairie phlox, is an herbaceous plant in the family Polemoniaceae. It is native to eastern North America, where it is found in open areas such as prairies and woodlands.

<i>Aquilegia pubescens</i> Californian endemic species of columbine

Aquilegia pubescens is a high-altitude species of columbine known by the common names Sierra columbine, alpine columbine and Coville's columbine. Its flowers are large and usually a creamy white.

<i>Aquilegia saximontana</i> Alpine North American species of columbine

Aquilegia saximontana, the Rocky Mountain columbine, alpine dwarf columbine, dwarf blue columbine, or alpine columbine, is a perennial plant that comes from the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.

<i>Phlox diffusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox diffusa is a species of phlox known by the common name spreading phlox. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to the southwestern United States to the Dakotas, where it grows in many types of habitat, including rocky, high elevation mountain slopes. It is a very compact mat-forming perennial herb growing in cushions or patches of short, decumbent stems. The linear, lance-shaped, or needle-like leaves are no more than 1.5 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in bundles on the short stems. The inflorescence is a solitary tubular flower around a centimeter long. It has a flat white or pale pink or blue corolla with five lobes each just under a centimeter in length.

<i>Trollius laxus</i> Species of flowering plant

Trollius laxus is a rare flowering plant species in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to North America and is considered to have two subspecies, one with a distribution is the east and one in the west. Common names for Trollius laxus include American globeflower and American spreading globeflower. The American Globeflower, Trollius laxus is an endangered species of flowering plants Native to Northeastern United States. This species of plants is limited in range by their ability to exclusively survive in wetlands and marshes. Thus, clusters of the species are constantly threatened by the ever-changing hydrology of the range they are confined to.

<i>Rubus flagellaris</i> Species of shrub

Rubus flagellaris, the northern dewberry, also known as the common dewberry, is a North American species perennial subshrub species of dewberry, in the rose family. This dewberry is distributed across much of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It grows in diverse habitats ranging from drier savannas to temperate deciduous forests.

<i>Aquilegia pyrenaica</i> Pyrenean endemic species of columbine

Aquilegia pyrenaica, common name Pyrenean columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae. It is endemic to the Pyrenees where it grows on grassland and in rocky places. It was first described in 1805 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle who gave it the name Aquilegia pyrenaica.

<i>Aquilegia longissima</i> North American species of columbine

Aquilegia longissima, the long-spur columbine, is a rare perennial herb that is native to northern Mexico, Trans-Pecos Texas and southern Arizona. In the original species description by Asa Gray in 1883, Aquilegia longissima is distinguished from the shorter-spurred golden columbine Aquilegia chrysantha based on the extremely long spur over 10 cm long, narrow spatulate petals and very slender spurs that usually hang straight down. The petal spurs have been known to reach 16 cm in length, the longest nectary spurs of any Eudicot. The plants typically flower in the fall after monsoon rains and are found in oak-pine-juniper woodlands in shaded canyons near intermittent streams or on talus slopes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nectar spur</span>

A nectar spur is a hollow extension of a part of a flower. The spur may arise from various parts of the flower: the sepals, petals, or hypanthium, and often contain tissues that secrete nectar (nectaries). Nectar spurs are present in many clades across the angiosperms, and are often cited as an example of convergent evolution.

<i>Aquilegia barnebyi</i> North American species of columbine

Aquilegia barnebyi, commonly known as the oil shale columbine or Barneby's columbine, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, with a native range comprising northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado in the United States. It is named after Rupert Charles Barneby, who, with Harry Dwight Dillon Ripley, first discovered it in Colorado.

References

  1. NatureServe (2023). "Aquilegia caerulea Colorado Columbine". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. "State Flower". State of Colorado. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  3. Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN   978-1845337315.
  4. Filiault, Danièle L; Ballerini, Evangeline S; Mandáková, Terezie; Aköz, Gökçe; Derieg, Nathan J; Schmutz, Jeremy; Jenkins, Jerry; Grimwood, Jane; Shu, Shengqiang; Hayes, Richard D; Hellsten, Uffe; Barry, Kerrie; Yan, Juying; Mihaltcheva, Sirma; Karafiátová, Miroslava (2018-10-16). Hardtke, Christian S; McVean, Gil (eds.). "The Aquilegia genome provides insight into adaptive radiation and reveals an extraordinarily polymorphic chromosome with a unique history". eLife. 7: e36426. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36426 . ISSN   2050-084X. PMC   6255393 . PMID   30325307.
  5. Aköz, Gökçe; Nordborg, Magnus (2019-11-28). "The Aquilegia genome reveals a hybrid origin of core eudicots". Genome Biology. 20 (1): 256. doi: 10.1186/s13059-019-1888-8 . ISSN   1474-760X. PMC   6883705 . PMID   31779695.
  6. Pabón-Mora, Natalia; Sharma, Bharti; Holappa, Lynn D.; Kramer, Elena M.; Litt, Amy (March 7, 2013). "The Aquilegia FRUITFULL-like genes play key roles in leaf morphogenesis and inflorescence development". The Plant Journal. 74 (2): 198–199. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12113 . PMID   23294330.
  7. Brunet, Johanne (2009). "Pollinators of the Rocky Mountain columbine: temporal variation, functional groups and associations with floral traits". Annals of Botany. 103 (9): 1567–1578. doi:10.1093/aob/mcp096. PMC   2701757 . PMID   19414518.
  8. "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin". www.wildflower.org. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  9. "Aquilegia coerulea". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
  10. Trim Tree Nursery: Aquilegia caerulea 'Origami Mix'