SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis Introductory
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| Photo by Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database |
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION: Red columbine is found in rocky woods from Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territories south to Florida and Texas [7,13,16]. ECOSYSTEMS [20]: FRES14 Oak-pine FRES15 Oak-hickory FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood FRES19 Aspen-birch STATES: (key to state/province abbreviations) AL AR CT DE FL GA IL IN IA KS KY MA MD ME MI MN MO NE NH NJ NY NC OH OK PA RI SC SD TN TX VA VT WV MB NB NF NS PE PQ BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS: None KUCHLER [24] PLANT ASSOCIATIONS: K100 Oak-hickory forest K101 Elm-ash forest K103 Mixed mesophytic forest K104 Appalachian oak forest K106 Northern hardwoods K107 Northern hardwoods-fir forest K108 Northern hardwoods-spruce forest K110 Northeastern oak-pine forest K111 Oak-hickory-pine forest K112 Southern mixed forest SAF COVER TYPES [19]: 14 Northern pin oak 16 Aspen 20 White pine-northern red oak-red maple 24 Hemlock-yellow birch 25 Sugar maple-beech-yellow birch 39 Black ash-American elm-red maple 44 Chestnut oak 51 White pine-chestnut oak 52 White oak-black oak-northern red oak 110 Black oak SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES: No entry HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES: No entry
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Red columbine is a perennial herb 12 to 30 inches (30-80 cm) tall, growing from a stout caudex. The stamens are long and exserted, the fruit is erect with five parallel ascending follicles with ultimately outcurving summits. Red columbine has a short, erect underground stem and fibrous, short-lived roots [1,2,7,15]. Some authors report vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae; others report no association [2]. RAUNKIAER [21] LIFE FORM: Hemicryptophyte REGENERATION PROCESSES: Red columbine sprouts from a stout caudex and reproduces from seed [7]. SITE CHARACTERISTICS: Red columbine generally occupies open sites that are steep and rocky but somewhat moist, such as wooded bluffs of streams, wooded slopes, streambanks, banks and slopes of deep ravines, limestone bluffs and ledges, borders and clearings in deciduous or mixed woods or thickets [6,16,17]. It is found on thin soils over granitic bedrock, steep hillsides of thin loess over limestone or quartzite bedrock, and on gravelly glacial moraine [4]. SUCCESSIONAL STATUS: Red columbine is moderately shade intolerant [1,2,3,5,8]. It is sometimes abundant on roadsides, sandbanks, or recent excavations [17]. SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT: Red columbine begins growth early in spring. Flowering occurs from March to July, fruiting from June to August, seed release in early to mid autumn [12]. Aboveground portions of the plant become senescent in mid to late autumn, dying back to the caudex [1,7].
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis FIRE ECOLOGY
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS: Red columbine sprouts from the caudex following fire [3]. POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [22]: Caudex, growing points in soil Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community) Secondary colonizer - off-site seed
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis FIRE EFFECTS
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT: Fire probably top-kills red columbine. DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT: No additional information is available on this topic. PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE: In a study of regeneration following wildfire, Croskery [3] found that wild columbine was highly abundant on a nonburned site, and abundant on the corresponding burned site (up to 5 years postfire). He suggests that wild columbine survives fire and other disturbances. DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE: No additional information is available on this topic. FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS: No additional information is available on this topic.
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE: Usually scattered and found on rocky bluffs, wild columbine has little importance as a forage species. However, it is pollinated by hummingbirds, which may depend on wild columbine as an important source of nectar [17]. PALATABILITY: The palatability of wild columbine is rated as follows [5]: domestic sheep: fair cattle: poor horses: unpalatable NUTRITIONAL VALUE: No additional information is available on this topic. COVER VALUE: No additional information is available on this topic. VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES: No additional information is available on this topic. OTHER USES AND VALUES: No additional information is available on this topic. OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS: No additional information is available on this topic.
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis References
REFERENCES: 1. Bare, Janet E. 1979. Wildflowers and weeds of Kansas. Lawrence, KS: The Regents Press of Kansas. 509 p. [3801] 2. Dawson, Todd E.; Ehleringer, James R. 1993. Gender-specific physiology, carbon isotope discrimination, and habitat distribution in boxelder, Acer negundo. Ecology. 74(3): 798-815. [17565] 3. Croskery, P. R.; Lee, P. F. 1981. Preliminary investigations of regeneration patterns following wildfire in the boreal forest of northwestern Ontario. Alces. 17: 229-256. [7888] 4. Curtis, John T. 1959. The vegetation of Wisconsin. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press. 657 p. [7116] 5. Dayton, William A. 1960. Notes on western range forbs: Equisetaceae through Fumariaceae. Agric. Handb. 161. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 254 p. [767] 6. Dearn, C. D. 1940. Flora of Indiana. Indianapolis, IN: Department of Conservation. [18860] 7. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. [Corrections supplied by R. C. Rollins]. Portland, OR: Dioscorides Press. 1632 p. (Dudley, Theodore R., gen. ed.; Biosystematics, Floristic & Phylogeny Series; vol. 2). [14935] 8. Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. 1392 p. [1603] 9. Hodgins, J. L. 1985. First record of an albino wild columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, for Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist. 99: 385. [18861] 10. Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p. [6954] 11. Keener, C. 1977. Studies in the Ranunculaceae of the southeastern United States. 6. Miscellaneous genera. SIDA-Contributions to Botany. 7(1): 1-12. [18862] 12. Laroche, G. 1978. An experimental study of population differences in leaf morphology of Aquilegia canadensis. American Midland Naturalist. 100: 341-349. [18863] 13. Munz, P. A. 1946. Aquilegia: the cultivated and wild columbines. In: Bailey, L. H. Gentes Herbarium. 7(1): 1-50. [18864] 14. Payson, E. B. 1918. The North American species of Aquilegia. U.S. National Herbarium Contributions. 20(4): 133-158. [18865] 15. Radford, Albert E.; Ahles, Harry E.; Bell, C. Ritchie. 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. 1183 p. [7606] 16. Steyermark, J. A. 1963. Flora of Missouri. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. 1725 p. [18144] 17. Voss, Edward G. 1985. Michigan flora. Part II. Dicots (Saururaceae--Cornaceae). Bull. 59. Bloomfield Hills, MI: Cranbrook Institute of Science; Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Herbarium. 724 p. [11472] 18. Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p. [434] 19. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905] 20. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others]. 1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998] 21. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843] 22. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p. [20090] 23. U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Resource Conservation Service. 2004. PLANTS database (2004), [Online]. Available: http://plants.usda.gov/. [46110] 24. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York: American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]