Columbines, among the most beautiful native western plants, have varicolored 

 flowers of unusual shape, belong to the buttercup family, and are native of 

 both the Old World and North America. The name columbine is derived from 

 the Latin for dove or pigeon (genus Columba), because of the fancied resem- 

 blance of the spurs to a circle of doves or pigeons on a perch. The generic 

 name Aquilegia is associated with an imagined similarity of the spurs to the 

 claws' of an eagle (aquila). The great majority of the 30 species of columbine 

 native in the United States and Alaska occur in the western range States ; 

 a few species are confined to the Eastern States. The columbine merits par- 

 ticular mention as an appropriate candidate for the national flower. The 

 red, white, or blue flowers are handsome and the foliage graceful. At least 

 one native species grows in each State. 



As forage plants, columbines, though often large and leafy and sometimes 

 abundant locally, are of but secondary importance. They rate in palatability 

 as fair for sheep, poor for cattle, and practically worthless for horses. They are 

 rather delicate plants and are likely to succumb if the range isi depleted by 

 overstocking, or other abuse, so that domestic livestock, especially sheep, graze 

 them more closely than normal use would permit, particularly if seeding 

 is prevented. Due to past mismanagement, columbines have been greatly 

 reduced on sheep ranges in Colorado where formerly they were plentiful. 



Columbines usually grow in moist situations such as shady stream banks, 

 meadows, aspen groves, and open woods from the lower foothills to the high 

 mountains. Some species appear on high, exposed rocky ridges and in shel- 

 tered canyons, seldom in pure stands, but more characteristically scattered. 



These plants are perennial herbs from slender to stout, mostly perpendicular, 

 often branched taproots. They vary in height from a few inches to about 5 

 feet, and produce mostly large leaves compounded in threes, each ultimate 

 branch bearing three leaflets the edges of which are irregularly toothed. The 

 strikingly ornate flowers have five petals, each with a long hollow spur extend- 

 ing backward from the frontal, leaflike blade which forms a part of the flower 

 face. The stamens are numerous and indefinite in number. The five pods 

 (follicles) each contain numerous seeds and are tipped with a slender bristle. 



American columbine (A. canaden'sis), an attractive red-flowered, eastern 

 species, which barely extends to the eastern borders of the range country, was 

 of unique value to certain Indian tribes 1 as a love charm and medicine. 



Colorado columbine (A. coeru'lea), a species with large and very handsome, 

 blue and white flowers which bloom from June to August, is the State flower 

 of Colorado and is protected by State law. 



Sitka columbine (A. formo'sa), the species illustrated on the other side of 

 this sheet, is a perennial herb, 3 or occasionally 4 feet high, which ranges 

 from Alaska to northern California, New Mexico, and Montana, but also occurs 

 in Siberia. The plant is found in the Sitka spruce type in Alaska, near 

 sea level, at elevations from 1,000 to 7,500 feet in the Pacific States, and from 

 3,500 to 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountain States. It is a common species 

 in the aspen type and in openings in the lodgepole type, but it may be present 

 in a great variety of soils and sites, sometimes being associated with sage- 

 brush, ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, Douglas fir, and white fir. It is especially 

 at home along stream banks, about seeps, springs, and ponds, in meadows, 

 canyon bottoms, and on moist wooded mountain slopes, particularly in loamy 

 soils. The species blossoms from late May or early June to August. In forage 

 value Sitka columbine varies from worthless to fair or sometimes fairly good, 

 sheep relishing it more than cattle. It is one of the most common, abundant, 

 and widely distributed of the western columbines. 



European columbine (A. vulffa'ris), a frequently cultivated blue-flowered 

 species naturalized in this country, has produced symptoms in the lower 

 animals very similar to the extreme prostration caused by aconite. 3 



1 Gilmore, M. R. USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI RIVER REGION. 

 D. S. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Ann. Kept. (1911-12)33:45-154, illus. 1919. (Reprinted 

 1919). 



2 Wood, H. C., Remington, J. P., and Sadtler, S. P., assisted by Lyons, A. B., and Wood, 



H. C., Jr. THE DISPENSATORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BY DR. GEO. B. WOOD 



AND DR. FRANKLIN BACHE. Ed. 19, thoroughly rev. and largely rewritten . . . 1,947 pp. 

 Philadelphia and London. 1907. 



