• Source: Aquilegia chrysantha

Aquilegia chrysantha, the golden columbine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.




Description


The ferny leaves have three leaflets with three lobes and grow from the base and off the flowering stems. The flowers grow on a long stem above the leaves and have five pointed yellow sepals and five yellow petals with long spurs of around 6.7 cm (2.6 in) projecting backwards between the sepals. At the center of the flower are many yellow stamens.




Taxonomy


Aquilegia chrysantha is part of the Aquilegia coerulea species complex adapted for hawkmoth pollination. It belongs to a likely monophyletic group with the other North American columbine species, which diverged from their closest relatives in East Asia in the mid-Pliocene around 3.8 million years ago.




= Etymology

=
The specific epithet chrysantha is Latin for "golden-flowered".




Distribution and habitat


The species is native to the southwestern United States from extreme southern Utah to Texas, including Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and to Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila in northwestern Mexico. It grows in moist habitats in mountainous regions.




Ecology


Aquilegia chrysantha flowers in May and early June. It is chiefly pollinated by the hawkmoth species Eumorpha achemon, the Achemon sphinx moth, and also by moths of the Sphinx genus. It is occasionally visited by large bees and hummingbirds.




Conservation


As of October 2024, NatureServe did not give a worldwide or United States-wide conservation status for A. chrysantha. In individual states, it is listed as Critically Imperiled (S1) in Utah, Imperiled (S2) in Colorado and Nevada, Vulnerable (S3) in Arizona and New Mexico, and is given no status rank (SNR) in Texas.




Cultivation


The cultivar 'Yellow Queen' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.




References






External links


Aquilegia chrysantha in the CalPhotos photo database, University of California, Berkeley

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