The edges of our wooded areas would be a welcoming spot for native Columbines. These lacy, delicate perennials are typical in partially shaded edges and they favor areas that have been disturbed by a tree fall or soil churning (think deer hooves!). A short-lived perennial, the Columbine also commonly seed down and move around to newly disrupted areas in a landscape.
Columbine’s botanical name is Aquilegia canadensis and it has a fascinating history.
Modern science allows us to untangle a plants’ history through DNA analysis. With that information, we now know that the columbine originated in both Europe and Asia, with the Asian species migrating across the Bering land bridge during the glacial period 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. With time and separation, the plants responded to local habitats and pollinators, evolving into several distinct species across North American. Many developed slightly different flower structures to serve their primary pollinator.
Aquilegia canadensis is the only columbine east of the 100th meridian and matches the range of ruby-throated hummingbirds. Bumblebees, particularly in the northern reaches of the plants range, also pollinate the flowers.
This plant has delicate blue-green foliage emerging year stacked up like plates and growing into graceful, lacy compound leaves. Sometimes an insect, called a leaf minor, will create a path within a leaf of damaged foliage – that is the larval stage of this insect eating its way around the leaf. The damage is mostly cosmetic and the best control is to remove the foliage at the end of the season and dispose of it off-site.
The pale red and yellow flowers have five downward opening petals and dramatic spurs that curve up and back. The name Aquilegia comes from the Latin for eagle, referring to the talon-like appearance of the flower spurs. The specific epithet of canadensis simply indicates it is native to northeastern North America.
This charming plant with its fanciful flowers inspired a number of uses, primarily as a love charm. Native American communities including Meskawki, Ponca, Pawnee and Omaha used Columbine seeds as a love charm and to perfume linens. The Cherokee used Columbine as a heart medicine and the Iroquois made a wash of Columbine to ease poison ivy. Omaha Ponca called this plant Inubtho-kithe-sabe-hi, or Black perfume plant and the Pawnee named it Skalikatit or black seed.
Citations:
US Forest Service https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/columbines/flower.shtml
US Forest Service https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/columbines/naturalhistory.shtml
Native American Ethnobotany http://naeb.brit.org/
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology
Missouri Botanical Garden: Kemper Plant Finder
by Jan
