Aquilegia coerulea

Aquilegia coerulea, commonly called the Colorado columbine, Rocky Mountain columbine, or blue columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, native to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States. It is a moderate sized wildflower that grows in mountainous areas from the foothills to above timberline. The flowers are mainly pollinated by bumblebees and several species of hawkmoths. The species has been the state flower of Colorado since 1899 and with its large, showy flowers is a frequent garden plant and used in the breeding of columbine hybrids. The botanical name coerulea (or caerulea) means 'sky blue'.

Description

Aquilegia coerulea is a herbaceous plant with flowering stems that may be 15–80 centimeters (6–31 in) when fully grown. They are perennial plants that typically live for four to six years; regrowing from a simple or branched rootstock that is covered in the bases of old petioles, the stems that support individual leaves. The basal leaves, the ones growing from the base of the plant, are always shorter than the flowering stems, just 9–37 cm (3.5–14.5 in) tall. They are compound leaves that are usually biternate, having nine leaflets in total in groups of three. However, occasionally they may be simply trifoliate, divided into just three leaflets, or tripinnate with each leaf divided to three levels with 21 leaflets in total.