Ranunculaceae / Aquilegia Formosa / Western Columbine

If you’ve spent any amount of time wandering the summertime Sierra Nevada, it’s almost a certainty you’ve seen these beautiful, alien-like floral masterpieces.

This perennial can be seen as tall as 150cm, though typically only half that or less, along glabrous and glaucous stems. They elegantly rise above both basal and cauline leaves. The lower cauline generally 2-ternate with the upper leaves generally simple to deeply 3-lobed. The nodding flowers are made up of 5 red sepals and stout red spurs abruptly narrowing near the middle. 5 yellow rounded petal blades with the many yellow stamens put the final aesthetic touch. The 5 upright follicle fruits with hairy, spreading tips contain numerous black, wrinkled seeds.

For us meager humans, the flowers are edible and often carry a sweet taste. Other aerial parts of the plant have accounts of edibility however we have not personally tried them. With that said, seeds are extremely toxic and most parts of the plant contain cyanogenic glycosides.

Reminiscent of a bird in flight, the unusual flower shape inspired the genus name Aquilegia, from the Latin word for eagle. The species name formosa means handsome, beautiful or well-formed. The common name Columbine comes from “columbina” which means dove-like in Latin, and is often preceded by descriptors referring to the flower's color: Red, Crimson or Scarlet Columbine. (USFS)