Species
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Aquilegia chrysantha A.Gray

Golden columbine, golden columbine

Climate known 69 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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.

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
A.Gray
Native to
Colorado, Arizona, Utah +4
Wild records
1299 in range· 470 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
505mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Aug 90 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–53DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
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). Habitat rain 505 mm a year, wettest August at 90 mm, driest June at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 53 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

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.

Temperature

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.

Humidity

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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Dec to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 505 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 425 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 20–53RH 37–51 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 425 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 4–1511 / 5–1714 / 9–2019 / 13–2524 / 19–2929 / 24–3429 / 24–3527 / 23–3325 / 21–3120 / 15–2514 / 9–199 / 4–14
Night °C-3 / -8–2-2 / -7–30 / -4–64 / -1–109 / 4–1513 / 9–1916 / 12–2215 / 11–2112 / 8–187 / 3–121 / -3–6-3 / -8–2
Rain mm41 / 20–6840 / 19–6539 / 21–6821 / 13–3716 / 8–3414 / 7–4979 / 37–12290 / 47–12853 / 29–7338 / 27–5031 / 18–5043 / 21–62
DLI22 / 19–2528 / 26–3138 / 35–4047 / 44–4851 / 49–5253 / 49–5446 / 43–4841 / 39–4438 / 36–4031 / 29–3324 / 21–2720 / 17–22
RH %50 / 47–5350 / 46–5348 / 43–5143 / 38–4740 / 35–4437 / 34–4647 / 43–5251 / 46–5547 / 43–5246 / 43–5047 / 44–5050 / 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

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.415, -110.73 · in the densest population, 1012 records (78% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1299 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 470 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 62 km away. 89 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 66 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1299 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysanthaAquilegia chrysantha

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.

The Aquilegia genome provides insight into adaptive radiation and reveals an extraordinarily polymorphic chromosome with a unique history
Danièle Filiault, Evangeline S. Ballerini, Terezie Mandáková, Gökçe Aköz (2018) · eLife
The long and the short of it: a global analysis of hawkmoth pollination niches and interaction networks
Steven D. Johnson, Marcela Moré, Felipe Wanderley Amorim, William A. Haber (2016) · Functional Ecology
Flower color as a model system for studies of plant evo-devo
James M. Sobel, Matthew A. Streisfeld (2013) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Phytochemical Classification of Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment of Kidney Disease Based on Traditional Persian Medicine
Fatemeh Rabizadeh, Maryam S. Mirian, Rahele Doosti, Roya Kiani‐Anbouhi (2022) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Parallelism in Flower Evolution and Development
Carolyn A. Wessinger, Lena C. Hileman (2020) · Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics
Bulletin no. 4 /
Aurora Nurseries., J. A. Young, Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection. (1922)
Diversity and evolution of tongue length in hawkmoths (Sphingidae)
William E. Miller (1997) · Biodiversity Heritage Library (Smithsonian Institution)
Chemical characteristics of ground-water discharge along the south rim of Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2000-2001
Stephen A. Monroe, Ronald C. Antweiler, R. J. Hart, Howard E. Taylor (2005) · Scientific investigations report

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.

Other Aquilegia 5 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every 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.