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Yellow
Columbine
Aquilegia flavescens S. Wats.
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Family: Ranunculaceae,
Buttercup
Genus: Aquilegia
Description
General: erect perennial, 20-70 cm tall, freely branched,
from simple to branched rootstocks. Stems hairless to
short-hairy and glandular.
 Leaves: mainly basal, reduced upward, the stalks, long,
hairless to copiously short-hairy and more or less glandular.
Stem leaves few, short-stalked. Leaf blades divided in 3's,
the leaflets thin, wedge-shaped, 2-3 times shallowly to
deeply lobed with rounded tips, usually with a bluish-white
cast and short-hairy beneath, 15-55 mm long.
 Flowers: pale yellow, nodding, usually several in loose
clusters. Petals 5, yellow, rarely slightly pinkish, 6-13 mm
long, each with a long, slender spur, which is nearly straight
but somewhat curved inward, 10-15 mm long. Sepals yellow
to whitish or pinkish, spreading, lanceolate to oblong-
lanceolate, 15-25 mm long.
Flowering time: June-August.
 Fruits: erect clusters of 5 slender pods (follicles), splitting
open along the inner side, copiously glandular-short-hairy,
about 2 cm long, the tips spreading.
Distribution
Moist mountain meadows or open woods to alpine slopes, in
w. and c. parts of MT. Also from B.C. and Alberta to w. WY,
CO, UT, and much of ID.
  Edible and Medicinal plant: see below. |
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(click on image for full size)
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Edible Uses:
The flowers of yellow columbine are edible raw. They are considered to be sweet and tasteful for the reason
of their high nectar content. The flowers can make a attractive addition when used on mixed salads.
Medicinal Uses:
The plant is antispasmodic, and has agents that induce sweating, and promote the resolving and removing of abnormal growths, such as tumors.
Other Uses:
The seed has been used as a parasiticide to treat infestations of lice in the hair.
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