Ask Kay: What's Blooming #4 Columbine

...in which we ask Kay, what's this?

The harlequin red/orange and yellow flowers are Aquilegia canadensis--Columbine.  They are a great hummingbird and butterfly attractor and have large reservoirs of nectar.  They are also the only food source for the larvae for the Columbine Duskywing butterfly, Erynnis lucilius, a little green caterpillar that will eat the lovely fine-textured blue green leaves but not the flowers; Columbine leaf miners will also eat the foliage, and you can sometimes see their tracks across the leaves.  Columbine will set seed and spread itself around in gardens in a charming, unpredictable way.  The plants go semi-dormant in the summer.


Columbine grows in woodland ledges and rocky outcrops in nature and enjoys moisture in the spring and dry conditions in the summer.  It is not easy to transplant, but can be planted from the dried seed capsule in mid-summer.  I let it grow wherever it wants to be!

Editor's notes:
That's Penstemon digitalis blooming behind it. You can find both of these flowers around campus but especially on the US step beds and in the MS beds. I posted this in August, but they bloom in late May and June.