| Aquilegia formosa | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Ranunculaceae |
| Genus: | Aquilegia |
| Species: | A. formosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Aquilegia formosa | |
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.
Aquilegia formosa is a perennial herb [1] that grows to 20–80 cm in height, averaging around 60 cm. Flowers, which can be seen from April to August (with some variation between regions), are about 5 cm long and red and yellow in color. The sepals and petal spurs are typically a reddish-orange color, attributed to the anthocyanin pigments pelargonidin and cyanidin, [2] and carotenoids. Petal blades are yellow, pigmented by carotenoids. The primary pollinators are hummingbirds, although bees, butterflies, and flies will also visit flowers. [3] Despite several floral adaptations to hummingbird pollination, at ~9,000-10,000 feet in elevation in the eastern drainages of the central Sierra Nevada mountains of California, A. formosa forms hybrid zones with Aquilegia pubescens, which is primarily pollinated by hawk moths.
The flowers are edible, with a sweet taste—though the seeds can be fatal if eaten, and most parts of the plant contain cyanogenic glycosides. [4]
Within its range, the crimson columbine can be found in most kinds of habitat (chaparral, oak woodland, mixed-evergreen or coniferous forest). It is not found on desert floors, nor at altitudes above 3300 metres, and it is absent from the Central Valley of California. It prefers moist locations such as stream banks.
Some Plateau Indian tribes used the Aquilegia formosa to concoct a perfume. [5] It is also used medicinally by several Native American tribes. [6]
Aquilegia is derived from the Latin word 'aquila', meaning 'eagle', or possibly from the Medieval German words 'Acheleia' or 'Akelei'; this name is in reference to its talon-like nectaries. Formosa means 'handsome', 'beautiful', or 'well-formed'. [7]
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.
Chromoplasts are plastids, heterogeneous organelles responsible for pigment synthesis and storage in specific photosynthetic eukaryotes. It is thought that like all other plastids including chloroplasts and leucoplasts they are descended from symbiotic prokaryotes.
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.
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.
Ipomopsis aggregata is a species of biennial flowering plant in the phlox family, Polemoniaceae, commonly known as scarlet trumpet, scarlet gilia, or skyrocket because of its scarlet red flowers with lobes curving back as if blown back by rocketing through the air.
Dicentra formosa is a flowering plant with fern-like leaves and an inflorescence of drooping pink, purple, yellow or cream flowers native to the Pacific Coast of North America.
Antirrhinum majus, the common snapdragon, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the genus Antirrhinum. The plant was placed in the family Plantaginaceae following a revision of its prior classical family, Scrophulariaceae.
Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes, are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments. Many biological structures, such as skin, eyes, feathers, fur and hair contain pigments such as melanin in specialized cells called chromatophores. In some species, pigments accrue over very long periods during an individual's lifespan.
Erythranthe cardinalis, the scarlet monkeyflower, is a flowering perennial in the family Phrymaceae. Together with other species in Mimulus section Erythranthe, it serves as a model system for studying pollinator-based reproductive isolation. It was formerly known as Mimulus cardinalis.
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.
Erythranthe lewisii is a perennial plant in the family Phrymaceae. It is named in honor of explorer Meriwether Lewis. Together with other species in Erythranthe, it serves as a model system for studying pollinator-based reproductive isolation. It was formerly known as Mimulus lewisii.
Diplacus douglasii is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names brownies and purple mouse ears. It is native to the mountains and foothills of California and Oregon, where it is often found on serpentine soils. D. douglasii was first described in a published flora by George Bentham, an English botanist who was considered "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century,." It was later described by Asa Gray, the father of North American botany.
Aquilegia elegantula is a species of columbine known by the common name western red columbine. It is native to the southwestern United States, particularly the Four Corners states, and northern Mexico, where it grows in moist areas in mountain coniferous forests. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb growing 10 t 60 centimeters tall. The green leaf blades are borne on long, slender petioles and divided into three leaflets which each have rounded lobes along the front edges. The flower has five long petals up to 3 centimeters in length including their elongated, knob-tipped spurs. The petals are bright red in the spurs and lighten to yellow-green or orange at the tips. Between the petals are the oval-shaped sepals, which are reddish to yellowish in color and are held parallel to the petals. Flowers often droop such that the mouth is toward the ground and the spurs point up; the flowers are pollinated by the broad-tailed hummingbird.
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.
The flora of the U.S. Sierra Nevada alpine zone is characterized by small, low growing, cushion and mat forming plants that can survive the harsh conditions in the high-altitude alpine zone above the timber line. These flora often occur in alpine fell-fields. The Sierra Nevada alpine zone lacks a dominant plant species that characterizes it, so may or may not be called a vegetation type. But it is found above the subalpine forest, which is the highest in a succession of recognized vegetation types at increasing elevations.
Erythranthe cuprea is a species of monkeyflower also known by the common name flor de cobre. It was formerly known as Mimulus cupreus. Its characteristics in nectar and petal shape are markedly different from other species in this genus found in Chile.
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.
Floral color change occurs in flowers in a wide range of angiosperm taxa that undergo a color change associated with their age, or after successful pollination.
Papaver heterophyllum, previously known as Stylomecon heterophylla, and better known as the wind poppy, is a winter annual herbaceous plant. It is endemic to the western California Floristic Province and known to grow in the area starting from the San Francisco Bay Area of Central Western California southwards to northwestern Baja California, Mexico. Its main habitat is often described as mesic and shady, with loamy soils such as soft sandy loam, clay loam, and leaf mold loam.
Aquilegia truncata, also known as the red columbine, is a flowering plant in the genus Aquilegia.
Media related to Aquilegia formosa at Wikimedia Commons| Authority control databases: National |
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