Aquilegia flavescens, the yellow columbine, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada.

Description

Aquilegia flavescens grows to 20–70 cm in height. The leaves are smooth or downy, and the stems are glandular pubescent. The flowers are nodding and the sepals usually yellow, but sometimes yellowish-pink or raspberry pink, reflexed, and 12–20 mm in length. The petal blades are white or cream and 7–10 mm long, with the stamens extending beyond them. The nectar spurs are yellow to raspberry pink, slightly curved, and measure 10–20 mm.

Taxonomy

The species is part of a clade containing all the North American species of columbines, that likely split from their closest relatives in East Asia in the mid-Pliocene, approximately 3.84 million years ago.

Etymology

The specific epithet flavescens means "yellowish" in Latin.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to mountain meadows, open woods, and alpine slopes of the Rocky Mountains of eastern Utah, Idaho, eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, western Montana, northeastern Wyoming, and southern British Columbia and Alberta. It grows at altitudes of 1300–3500 m.

Ecology

Aquilegia flavescens is pollinated by hummingbirds and visited by bumblebees including the common carder bee and the golden-belted bumblebee. It flowers from June to August and sometimes forms hybrid swarms with Aquilegia formosa var. formosa, which grows at lower elevations throughout much of its range.

Conservation

, NatureServe listed Aquilegia flavescens as Secure (G5) worldwide. This status was last reviewed on 13 May 2016. In individual provinces and states, it is listed as Secure (G5) in British Columbia; Apparently Secure (S4) in Alberta, Montana, and Wyoming; and has no status rank in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, or Colorado.