Featured Article Summary #206

Aquilegia, also called columbines, is a group of perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family. There are many types, with their natural range across much of the Northern Hemisphere, and they grow on every continent except Antarctica. Columbines are well known for their varied looks and for hybridizing easily, which is why they are popular garden plants with many cultivated varieties. They usually have stiff stems, divided leaves, and colorful flowers with five sepals and five petals, often with nectar spurs that vary by species and help attract different pollinators. Some types are naturally without spurs, and gardeners also grow forms with unusual traits like double flowers. In history and culture, they were linked to religious ideas in ancient Greece and Rome, and archaeological finds show they were grown in Roman Britain by the 3rd century AD; they have also been used in herbal remedies, perfumes, and food despite being often toxic. The plant name columbine has been recorded in different forms for centuries, including “Isopyrum” in the 1st century and “agleya” in the 12th century. The formal genus name Aquilegia was adopted by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, though related names like Aquilina were used in science for some time afterward. The name Aquilegia likely comes from Latin words meaning “eagle,” because the petals can resemble eagle talons, though it may also relate to ideas of collecting water or water-finding due to the nectar-filled spurs. The common English name “columbine” comes from words meaning “dove,” reflecting the dove-like shape of the flowers, and other languages have names such as “granny’s bonnet,” “lion’s herb,” and “Our Lady’s glove.” Aquilegia, or columbines, are herbaceous perennial flowering plants with widely varying forms. They grow foliage after winter dormancy and then bloom briefly, with some species blooming in the first year while others bloom only in the second; after flowering, seed heads form and split to spread new seed, and the foliage dies back in fall. Their flowers typically come from buds that point downward and can be blue, purple, or other colors depending on the species, with structures called nectar spurs that help attract pollinators. Some Aquilegia species, such as A. vulgaris, contain cyanogenic glycosides (like dhurrin and triglochinin) that taste bitter and can be toxic. Reports include severe human symptoms after eating leaves or flowers, and the seeds and roots are especially dangerous. Other species contain antibacterial flavonoids and polyphenols (flavonoids) with antioxidant activity, and phenylpropanoids in A. formosa help protect flowers from UV light and may attract or signal to pollinators. Even though columbines are toxic and not eaten by people, some animals do eat their leaves and fruits. In one study of the endangered Aquilegia paui, goats were observed to destroy about 30% of the fruit. In North America, several insects use Aquilegia plants as hosts, with species like leaf miners, sawflies, and a butterfly laying eggs on the leaves, while some fungi also infect the foliage, including downy mildew first reported on columbines in the UK in 2013.