Species
+

Aquilegia coerulea James

Colorado blue columbine, Colorado blue columbine, Colorado columbine, Rocky Mountain columbine

Climate known 54 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 coerulea, commonly called the Colorado columbine, Rocky Mountain columbine, or blue columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, native to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States. It is a moderate sized wildflower that grows in mountainous areas from the foothills to above timberline. The flowers are mainly pollinated by bumblebees and several species of hawkmoths. The species has been the state flower of Colorado since 1899 and with its large, showy flowers is a frequent garden plant and used in the breeding of columbine hybrids. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aquilegia coerulea”, 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
James
Native to
Colorado, Idaho, Montana +5
Wild records
1741 in range· 360 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 7 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
751mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–50DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 751 mm a year, wettest August at 83 mm, driest January at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -26.8 °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 advena Regel; Aquilegia caerulea var. leptocera (Nutt.) A.Nelson; Aquilegia caerulea var. macrantha (Hook. & Arn.) Rapaics; Aquilegia canadensis subsp. coerulea (E.James) Brühl; Aquilegia coerulea f. glandulosa Cockerell and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (553 mm of 751 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

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 751 mm a year, wettest August at 83 mm, driest January at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

751 mm a year at the habitat, 553 mm of it March to October. Wettest month August at 83 mm, driest January at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 481 mm to 1175 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: 16 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 50 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

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 -26.8 °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 -26.8 °C, the absolute minimum -40.9 °C, about 249 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -15.4 °C in December (across the envelope cells -19.1 °C to -11.1 °C), warmest day 21.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -26.8 °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: 48 to 57% 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 -4 °C in Dec to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from -15 °C in Dec to 7 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 751 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 827 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -40.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost27.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-40.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 16–50RH 48–57 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 827 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 °C-4 / -7–1-3 / -6–21 / -2–65 / 1–1011 / 7–1618 / 14–2221 / 18–2520 / 16–2416 / 12–209 / 5–131 / -3–5-4 / -7–0
Night °C-15 / -18–-11-14 / -17–-10-11 / -14–-7-7 / -11–-3-3 / -6–23 / -1–77 / 3–116 / 3–102 / -1–6-4 / -8–0-11 / -15–-6-15 / -19–-11
Rain mm47 / 18–8848 / 21–8965 / 39–10372 / 42–10372 / 44–10856 / 32–8678 / 41–12783 / 45–13867 / 40–11360 / 36–10151 / 23–9152 / 23–95
DLI18 / 15–2125 / 22–2834 / 31–3743 / 40–4548 / 45–5050 / 48–5247 / 45–5042 / 40–4436 / 34–3827 / 24–3020 / 16–2316 / 13–19
RH %56 / 51–6156 / 52–6055 / 51–5853 / 49–5552 / 47–5448 / 41–5249 / 42–5252 / 44–5551 / 45–5352 / 49–5455 / 50–5857 / 51–61

Each figure is the median across the 827 grid cells holding the 1664 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 991:1479 (40.425, -106.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -40.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -26.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 827 distinct grid cells holding the 1664 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 991:1479 (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 40.50_-106.250, lapse-corrected +133 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2878 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, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.656, -105.88 · in the densest population, 1006 records (58% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1741 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 360 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 77 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 of the 1741 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coeruleaAquilegia coerulea

Photographs: (c) Owen Strickland, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Mason Holum, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 coerulea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Universal Probe Set for Targeted Sequencing of 353 Nuclear Genes from Any Flowering Plant Designed Using k-Medoids Clustering
Matthew G. Johnson, Lisa Pokorny, Steven Dodsworth, Laura R. Botigué (2018) · Systematic Biology
Evolution of Hormone Signaling Networks in Plant Defense
Matthias L. Berens, Hannah M. Berry, Akira Mine, Cristiana T. Argueso (2017) · Annual Review of Phytopathology
WGDI: A user-friendly toolkit for evolutionary analyses of whole-genome duplications and ancestral karyotypes
Pengchuan Sun, Beibei Jiao, Yongzhi Yang, Lanxing Shan (2022) · Molecular Plant
The emerging biofuel crop Camelina sativa retains a highly undifferentiated hexaploid genome structure
Sateesh Kagale, ChuShin Koh, John Nixon, Venkatesh Bollina (2014) · Nature Communications
Cell Death Mediated by the N-Terminal Domains of a Unique and Highly Conserved Class of NB-LRR Protein
Sarah Collier, Louis‐Philippe Hamel, Peter Moffett (2011) · Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
The opium poppy genome and morphinan production
Li Guo, Thilo Winzer, Xiaofei Yang, Yi Li (2018) · Science
Identification of novel soybean microRNAs involved in abiotic and biotic stresses
Franceli Rodrigues Kulcheski, Luiz FV de Oliveira, Lorrayne Gomes Molina, Maurício Pereira Almerão (2011) · BMC Genomics
HelitronScanner uncovers a large overlooked cache of Helitron transposons in many plant genomes
Wenwei Xiong, Limei He, Jinsheng Lai, Hugo K. Dooner (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Evolution and Conservation of Plant NLR Functions
Florence Jacob, Saskia Vernaldi, Takaki Maekawa (2013) · Frontiers in Immunology
Evolutionary dynamics of the kinetochore network in eukaryotes as revealed by comparative genomics
Jolien J. E. van Hooff, Eelco C. Tromer, Leny M. van Wijk, ‎Berend Snel (2017) · EMBO Reports
An apical hypoxic niche sets the pace of shoot meristem activity
Daan A. Weits, Alicja B Kunkowska, Nicholas C. W. Kamps, Katharina Portz (2019) · Nature

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 50 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.