and usually five pistils which develop into many seeded 

 follicles, dry fruits which split along one side only. 

 Figure 4 is an illustration of the species. 



2. Technical Description: (adapted from Welsh et al . 1987) 

 Plants 1.5-10.5 dm tall; stems glabrous or glandular- 

 hirtellous above; leaves mainly basal, 4-38 cm long, 

 biternate, glabrous or villous or glandular, green above, 

 paler beneath; flowers usually 2-4, nodding, as broad as 

 long or broader, regular, showy; sepals 5, petaloid, 

 horizontally spreading, not spurred, 14-27 mm long, red, 

 reddish, or rarely yellowish; petals 5, with spurs 

 colored like the sepals, the blades yellow, 2-7(9) mm 

 long, spurs 15-20 mm long; stamens numerous, exceeding 

 the petal blades by 12-17 mm; follicles usually 5, 

 pubescent, 15-25 mm long; 2n=14. 



3. Diagnostic characters: Deep red sepals and petal spurs; 

 petal blades 2-6 mm long; averaging somewhat taller than 

 Aquilegia flavescens , which has yellow sepals and petal 

 spurs, and usually longer petal blades (Hitchcock and 

 Cronguist 1973). 



B. CURRENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 



1. Federal 



a. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: none 



b. U.S. Forest Service: none 



c. Bureau of Land Management: none 



2. State: The Montana Natural Heritage Program ranks 

 Aquilegia formosa G5 and SI (Heidel 1994), meaning that 

 the species is demonstrably secure globally, but 

 critically imperiled due to extreme rarity in Montana. 

 The species is also ranked SI in Wyoming (Fertig 1994). 



C. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: Widely distributed in western North 

 America, from southern Alaska south along the coast and 

 in the coastal mountains to Baja California, east to 

 western Alberta, Montana, and Utah (Hitchcock and 

 Cronguist 1964). Also in Park County, Wyoming (Dorn 

 1992) . 



2. Distribution in Montana: Aquilegia formosa is currently 

 known from 5 sites in Beaverhead County in the 

 Beaverhead, Centennial, and Tendoy mountains. 



13 



