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Aquilegia
Also called Columbines, Granny's Bonnets
Columbines (Aquilegia) are a genus of hardy perennials in the buttercup family, with 70 to 400 species and many hybrids grown in gardens. They are easy to grow in cool, well-drained soil and often self-seed, though some species are short-lived.
Aquilegia, commonly known as columbines, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in subfamily Thalictroideae of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercups). The genus includes between 70 and 400 taxa (described species and subspecies) with natural ranges across the Northern Hemisphere. Natural and introduced populations of Aquilegia exist on all continents but Antarctica. Known for their high physical variability and ease of hybridization, columbines are popular garden plants and have created many cultivated varieties.
Aquilegia plants typically possess stiff stems and leaves that divide into multiple leaflets. Columbines often have colorful flowers with five sepals and five petals. The petals generally feature nectar spurs which differ in length between species. In North America, morphological variations in spurs evolved to suit different pollinators.
In Europe, cultivation of columbines may have begun over 1,700 years ago. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests that A. vulgaris was cultivated for ornamental purposes in 3rd-century AD Roman Britain. Two A. vulgaris seeds in burnt waste pits, one at Alcester and another at Leicester, have been interpreted as evidence of their planting in Roman gardens. Finds of columbines at a late Saxon site near Winchester Cathedral and three later medieval German sites may indicate the plants were used for gardening. In 12th-century Italy, people may have supported A. vulgaris or A. atrata populations near religious structures, possibly due to the contemporary treatment of columbines as Christian symbols.
Aquilegia are grown for a variety of purposes. Cut flowers can be collected once the flower opens. The dried fruit can also be used in ornamental arrangements. Columbines function well in garden borders and can occupy shade and cottage gardens. Certain columbines are suited for well-drained rock gardens or alpine gardens. A few, such as the dwarf woodland plant A. flabellata var.
Despite the plants' toxicity and in the absence of incentives for human consumption, some animals consume the fruit and leaves of columbines. Consumption by mammals is not considered a component of the Aquilegia reproductive cycle but has been observed. In the case of the endangered A. paui, one study cited a personal observation that 30% of all fruit was lost to goat predation.
Aquilegia alpina · Aquilegia bertolonii · Red columbine · Golden columbine · Colorado blue columbine · Fan columbine · Western columbine · Oriental Columbine · Columbine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aquilegia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
