Aquilegia formosa

Crimson columbine

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Crimson columbine is a California native perennial found in the Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, and Great Basin in streambanks, seeps, moist places, chaparral, oak woodland, and conifer forests at elevations up to 3,300 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces red and yellow flowers with distinctive spurs 12 to 23 millimeters long, creating an elegant hanging bloom. Growing 20 to 80 centimeters tall with glaucous stems, it develops glabrous, delicate foliage with complex leaf structures. Its basal and lower cauline leaves are typically 2-ternate, featuring leaflets 7 to 45 millimeters long, with upper leaves often simply lobed. The fruit develops into elongated capsules 15 to 28 millimeters long with a distinctive beak 9 to 12 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Streambanks, seeps, moist places, chaparral, oak woodland, mixed-evergreen or conifer forests

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: < 3300 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc GV, SCo, ChI), GB

California counties: Mendocino, Mono, San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Tulare, Siskiyou, Tehama, Plumas, Inyo, Lake, Shasta, Fresno, Madera, San Diego, Lassen, Riverside, Contra Costa, Monterey, El Dorado, Placer, Humboldt, Butte, Trinity, Mariposa, Modoc, Orange, Santa Clara, Del Norte, San Mateo, Nevada, Amador, Tuolumne, Sonoma, Sierra, Alpine, Calaveras, Glenn, Marin, Santa Barbara, Yuba, Alameda, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Colusa, San Benito, Solano, Sacramento

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.