Wild Red Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis

Photo by Pam Ford
Summary
This beautiful woodland wildflower has showy, bell-like, red and yellow flowers equipped with distinctly backward-pointing tubes, similar to the cultivated garden columbines. These tubes (spurs) contain nectar that attracts long-tongued insects and hummingbirds, who are best able to reach the sweet reward. The leaves, divided into three rounded lobes, are attractive in their own right. Easily grown in well-drained soil and partial shade, it self-seeds readily and can spread to form a ground cover if the soil is kept moist enough.
More Details
FAMILY
Ranunculaceae (Buttercup)
BLOOM TIME
May-June
FLOWER
Red and yellow
MATURE SIZE
2-3 feet
LIGHT REQUIREMENT
Part sun to part shade
SOIL CONDITIONS
Medium well-drained soils.
NATIVE STATUS
PA Native
Ecosystem Connections
Wild Columbine flowers approximately at the same time as the return of migrating hummingbirds, providing these birds with an important nectar source. Bumble bees queens forage for nectar on wild columbine by either grasping onto the stamens and forcing their head into the spur, or crawling up the stamen and pushing their head and thorax into the mouth of the spur. It is a host plant for the columbine duskywing (Erynnis lucilius).