National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 6/Our State Flowers/The Colorado Columbine

The Colorado Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea James)


The school children and the legislature of Colorado do not agree upon the issue of a State flower. Both have voted the honor to the columbine, but the legislature nineteen years ago awarded the wreath of fame to the white-and-lavender, while six years ago the school children chose the blue-and-white. An outsider may declare his neutrality and admiration for both.

It is reputed that in no other region does the columbine grow more beautiful or so large as in Colorado. The people of the Centennial State have no hesitancy in declaring that their flower is four times as large as the “Down East” species.

A native of the lower mountain regions, blooming from April to July and ranging from Montana to Mexico, the columbine cheers every pathway that leads up toward the realm of summer snows.

The name “columbine” comes from the Latin for dove, and was applied because the flower has a fancied resemblance to a group of dainty little doves. Its other name, “aquilegia,” was given it because the spurs of the flower possess a resemblance&mdash;somewhat indistinct in the Colorado blossom&mdash;to the talons of the eagle. Thus the columbine may with equal claim play the rôle of dove of peace or eagle of war.

It has many exquisite relatives, among them the clematis, the anemones, the hepaticas, the rues, the spearworts, the buttercups, the marigolds, the larkspurs, and the monkshoods.

The various species of columbine have a wide range. The flower possesses all Europe and occupies that part of Asia between northern Siberia and the Himalayas.

In the northern half of the world there are about fifty varieties of columbine, of which some twenty occur in North America.

Source: —, ed. (June 1917), “Our State Flowers: The Floral Emblems Chosen by the Commonwealths”, The National Geographic Magazine 31(6): 489. (Illustration from page 503.)