backward extension, the spur, is short, hooked, 

 and blue in color. Five pointed, blue sepals, 

 flare out behind the petals. The styles are 

 short, usually near 1/8 inch long. When ripe, the 

 dry tubular elongate fruits contain numerous 

 black, shining, narrow arcuate seeds (adapted from 

 Munz 1946) . 



2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Stems 2-8 dm high, 1.5-3.5 

 mm thick, glabrous to pilose below, pilose and 

 more or less glandular above, simple to branched 

 above; basal leaves few, biternate, rather thin, 

 green and glabrous above, glaucous and glabrous to 

 pilose beneath; petioles 3-18 cm long, slender, 

 subglabrous to pilose; primary petiolules 1-5 cm 

 long, usually pilose, secondary up to 1 cm long; 

 leaflets round-obovate to wider, 1-4 cm long, 

 cleft to about the middle, each division with few 

 round-oblong often slightly emarginate lobes; 

 cauline leaves gradually reduced up the stem, the 

 leaflets narrower, about 1 dm long; flowers 

 nodding, pilose; sepals blue, slightly spreading, 

 lanceolate, acuminate to acute, 13-16 mm long; 

 laminae yellowish-white, oblong, rounded-truncate, 

 8-10 mm long; spurs blue, hooked, 6-7 mm long, 

 about 3 mm wide at base; stamens scarcely 

 equalling laminae, anthers yellow, about 1 mm 

 long; staminodia 6-7 mm long, plane, abruptly 

 acute; follicles 5-6, glandular and pilose, 15-25 

 mm long, often divergent above, the styles 3-4 mm 

 long; seeds about 1.5 mm long (Munz 1946). 



3. LOCAL FIELD CHARACTERS: In Montana, A. brevistvla 

 is differentiated from other blue-flowered 

 columbines by a combination of characteristics 

 including: the length of the style, length of the 

 spurs, the size of the plant, and the presence and 

 size of leaves along the stem. Aquilegia 

 brevistyla differs from A. coerulea by having 

 short spurs (versus long spurs) , and from A. 

 ionesii by having leaves along the stem, and leaf 

 blades mostly over 15 mm long (versus only basal 

 leaves with blades that are less than 15 mm long) . 



Munz (1946) reported hybridization between A. 

 brevistvla and A. f lavescens , citing the specimens 

 Macoun (95889, 95890) from Goat Mountain, Jasper 

 Park, Alberta, with "sepals spreading, blue, 

 16-20 mm. long; laminae whitish or pale, 6-8 mm. 

 long; spurs not hooked, 5-14 mm. long." 

 Information presented under Reproduction and 

 Taxonomy, Section F.3.a., p. 11, indicates that A. 



