Columbine, Eastern Red (Aquilegia canadensis)

This beautiful woodland wildflower will be distinct in any garden with the showy, bell-like, red and yellow drooping flowers and lovely delicate leaves. Columbine is stunning set elegantly on slopes or other places in the garden where contrast is celebrated.

Columbine’s Latin name, Aquilegia, is derived from the Latin word for eagle, Aquila. The long spurs that extend behind the flower petals are said to resemble the claws of an eagle. Well equipped with distinctly backward-pointing tubes, these flowers contain nectar that attracts long-tongued creatures like hummingbird moths, butterflies and hummingbirds, who are especially adapted to reach the sweet nectar of this delicate plant. Finches and Buntings love the seeds of this magical flower as well. Native Americans also worked the crushed seeds of this native perennial as a love charm and for various medicinal purposes.

Flower Pic Credit: Erin O'Hara