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Discover Nature: Columbine

Red and yellow spur-shaped columbine flowers hang like bells from stems with small, deep-green leaves on a cliff face.
Flowers of the columbine plant (Aquilegia canadensis) have a distinct shape. The five petals form long, hollow, red spurs containing nectar, and the five sepals are leaflike, light yellow, and attached between the petals.

This week on Discover Nature, a poisonous perennial wildflower shows off bright red- and yellow-blossoming spurs.

Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is in full bloom in Missouri this week. Growing about two-feet tall, often in shaded areas in woodlands and hanging from rock cliffs, this hardy native wildflower is also a favorite among landscape gardeners. 

The plants are toxic for human consumption, but they provide an important food source for humming birds and other pollinators such as butterflies and moths that are able to feed from the deep nectaries inside each flower. 

Native Americans used these plants for various medicinal purposes, and some used them as a love potion by rubbing ground seeds on their palms before grasping the hands of their beloved, or of people they wished to persuade. 

Learn more about columbine, and find public land near you to see these brightly blooming flowers this week with the Missouri Department of Conservation’s online field guide.

Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation. 

 

Kyle Felling was born in the rugged northwest Missouri hamlet of St. Joseph (where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended). Inspired from a young age by the spirit of the early settlers who used St. Joseph as an embarkation point in their journey westward, Kyle developed the heart of an explorer and yearned to leave for adventures of his own. Perhaps as a result of attending John Glenn elementary school, young Kyle dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but was disheartened when someone told him that astronauts had to be good at math. He also considered being a tow truck driver, and like the heroes of his favorite childhood television shows (The A-Team and The Incredible Hulk) he saw himself traveling the country, helping people in trouble and getting into wacky adventures. He still harbors that dream.
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