columbine

columbine, in botany

columbine (kŏl`əmbīn), any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. Columbines have delicate and attractive foliage and flower petals with long spurs that secrete nectar. The common Eastern red-and-yellow-flowered wild columbine (A. canadensis), frequenting rocky places, is also called rockbell; it is a favorite of hummingbirds, and Native Americans made an infusion of the seeds for headache and fever. The blue-and-white-flowered A. coerulea of the Rockies is the state flower of Colorado. The common European columbine (A. vulgaris), blue, white, or purple flowered, has been the source of many cultivars—some double and of various soft colors. Columbine is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Ranunculales, family Ranunculaceae.

---

Columbine, in the commedia dell'arte

Columbine: see commedia dell'arte.

---

columbine

Any of approximately 70 species of perennial herbaceous plants constituting the genus Aquilegia, in the buttercup family, native to Europe and North America. They are distinctive for their five-petaled flowers with long, backward-extending spurs. Sepals and petals are brightly coloured. A. caerulea and A. chysantha are native to the Rocky Mountains. The wild columbine of North America (A. canadensis), bearing red flowers with touches of yellow, grows in woods and on rocky ledges from southern Canada southward. Many garden hybrids are cultivated for their showy flowers.

---

columbine

any plant of the ranunculaceous genus Aquilegia, having purple, blue, yellow, or red flowers with five spurred petals

---

Columbine

light-hearted, flirtatious girl. [Ital. Lit.: Walsh Classical, 83]

See : Flirtatiousness

---

columbine

traditional symbol of folly. [Plant Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 173]

See : Folly