Aquilegia chrysantha A.Gray
Golden columbine, golden columbine
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Aquilegia chrysantha, the golden columbine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The plant, with a height of between 40 centimetres (16 in) and 120 centimetres (47 in), has yellow flowers. A. chrysantha. as with other members of the Aquilegia coerulea species complex, is evolved for pollination by hawkmoth. It favors moist environments in its mountainous range.
Text from Wikipedia, “Aquilegia chrysantha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Aquilegia
Aquilegia, commonly known as columbines, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in subfamily Thalictroideae of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercups). The genus includes between 70 and 400 taxa with natural ranges across the Northern Hemisphere. Natural and introduced populations of Aquilegia exist on all continents but Antarctica. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Aquilegia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Aquilegia caerulea var. chrysantha (A.Gray) Rapaics; Aquilegia chrysantha f. pleiocalcarata B.Boivin; Aquilegia chrysantha var. chrysantha; Aquilegia coerulea var. chrysantha (A.Gray) Rapaics; Aquilegia flava (A.Gray) M.E.Jones, 1893 and 5 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (385 mm of 505 mm) falls in December to March and July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.1 °C against a yearly mean of 12.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 505 mm a year, wettest August at 90 mm, driest June at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
505 mm a year at the habitat, 385 mm of it December to March and July to September. Wettest month August at 90 mm, driest June at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 359 mm to 697 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 53 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.6 °C, the absolute minimum -18.9 °C, about 121 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.7 °C to 1.9 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 37 to 51% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 9 / 4–15 | 11 / 5–17 | 14 / 9–20 | 19 / 13–25 | 24 / 19–29 | 29 / 24–34 | 29 / 24–35 | 27 / 23–33 | 25 / 21–31 | 20 / 15–25 | 14 / 9–19 | 9 / 4–14 |
| Night °C | -3 / -8–2 | -2 / -7–3 | 0 / -4–6 | 4 / -1–10 | 9 / 4–15 | 13 / 9–19 | 16 / 12–22 | 15 / 11–21 | 12 / 8–18 | 7 / 3–12 | 1 / -3–6 | -3 / -8–2 |
| Rain mm | 41 / 20–68 | 40 / 19–65 | 39 / 21–68 | 21 / 13–37 | 16 / 8–34 | 14 / 7–49 | 79 / 37–122 | 90 / 47–128 | 53 / 29–73 | 38 / 27–50 | 31 / 18–50 | 43 / 21–62 |
| DLI | 22 / 19–25 | 28 / 26–31 | 38 / 35–40 | 47 / 44–48 | 51 / 49–52 | 53 / 49–54 | 46 / 43–48 | 41 / 39–44 | 38 / 36–40 | 31 / 29–33 | 24 / 21–27 | 20 / 17–22 |
| RH % | 50 / 47–53 | 50 / 46–53 | 48 / 43–51 | 43 / 38–47 | 40 / 35–44 | 37 / 34–46 | 47 / 43–52 | 51 / 46–55 | 47 / 43–52 | 46 / 43–50 | 47 / 44–50 | 50 / 46–53 |
Each figure is the median across the 425 grid cells holding the 1233 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1110:1349 (34.475, -112.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 425 distinct grid cells holding the 1233 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1110:1349 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-112.500, lapse-corrected +375 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1868 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Daniel Z, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Rosario Douglas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) beagsmn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Aquilegia chrysantha, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Echinocereus bakeri Baker Kingcup Cactus
Fallugia paradoxa Apache plume
Nolina greenei Woodland Beargrass
Yucca intermedia intermediate yucca
Sclerocactus papyracanthus Paperspine Fishhook Cactus
Agave parryi Parry's AgaveOther Aquilegia 5 in the reference
Aquilegia atrata Dark Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis American columbine
Aquilegia coerulea Colorado blue columbine
Aquilegia formosa Sitka columbine
Aquilegia vulgaris Capon's-feather History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








