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Vascular Plants of California
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Aquilegia
COLUMBINE

Higher Taxonomy
Family: RanunculaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

Common Name: BUTTERCUP FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, woody vine [shrub], occasionally aquatic. Leaf: generally basal and cauline, alternate or opposite, simple or compound; petioles at base generally flat, occasionally sheathing or stipule-like. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; sepals 3--6(20), free, early-deciduous or withering in fruit, generally green; petals 0--many, generally free; stamens generally 5--many, staminodes generally 0; pistils 1--many, ovary superior, chamber 1, style 0--1, generally +- persistent as beak, ovules 1--many. Fruit: achene, follicle, berry, +- utricle in Trautvetteria, in aggregate or not, 1--many-seeded.
Genera In Family: +- 60 genera, 1700 species: worldwide, especially northern temperate, tropical mountains; many ornamental (Adonis, Aquilegia, Clematis, Consolida, Delphinium, Helleborus, Nigella). Toxicity: some highly TOXIC (Aconitum, Actaea, Delphinium, Ranunculus). Note: Taxa of Isopyrum in TJM (1993) moved to Enemion; Kumlienia moved to Ranunculus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Dieter H. Wilken, family description, key to genera
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Aquilegia
Habit: Perennial herb; caudex thick, branched to not. Stem: 1--few, ascending to erect, branched to not, scapose to not, glabrous to glandular-hairy. Leaf: basal 1--3-ternate, petiole generally long; cauline 0--few, generally much reduced, deeply 3-lobed to 1--2-ternate, petiole short to +- 0; segments generally wedge-shaped to obovate, abaxially pale green to glaucous, adaxially green to gray, glabrous to glandular. Inflorescence: few-flowered raceme or flower 1, terminal; axis, pedicels glabrous to glandular; flowers generally nodding. Flower: sepals 5, petal-like, spreading [to +- reflexed]; petals 5, spurs between sepals, mouths < to > 90° to exposed filaments; pistils generally 5. Fruit: follicle, glabrous to glandular. Seed: smooth, shiny, brown to black.
Species In Genus: +- 70 species: temperate North America, Eurasia. Etymology: (Perhaps Latin: eagle, from spurs, or water-drawer, from habitats) Note: Many species, hybrids cultivated as ornamental; natural hybrids common; recent adaptive radiation with specialized pollinations syndromes (bee, hummingbird, hawkmoth).
Jepson eFlora Author: Justen Whittall, Scott A. Hodges & Dieter H. Wilken
Unabridged Reference: Munz 1946 Gentes Herb 7:1--150
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Aquilegia

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Citation for this treatment: Justen Whittall, Scott A. Hodges & Dieter H. Wilken 2012, Aquilegia, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=10124, accessed on April 19, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.