SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
Introductory
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
 |
| Photo by Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database |
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION:
Sullivan, Janet. 1992. Aquilegia canadensis. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station,
Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/forb/aqucan/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION:
AQUCAN
SYNONYMS:
None
NRCS PLANT CODE:
AQCA
COMMON NAMES:
red columbine
wild columbine
Canada columbine
American columbine
meetinghouses
rock-bells
honeysuckle
rock-lily
jack-in-trousers
cluckies
wild-honeysuckle
northern bush-honeysuckle
TAXONOMY:
The currently accepted scientific name for red columbine is Aquilegia
canadensis L. [13,14]
Recognized varieties are as follows:
A. canadensis variety canadensis
A. canadensis variety australis (Small) Munz
A. canadensis variety coccinea (Small) Munz
A. canadensis variety hybrida Hook.
A. canadensis variety latiscula (Greene)
Recognized forms are as follows:
A. canadensis forma Phippenii (J.Robinson) R. Hoffm.
A. canadensis forma flaviflora (Tenney) Britt.
A. canadensis forma albiflora House
LIFE FORM:
Forb
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS:
No special status
OTHER STATUS:
None
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:
Red columbine sprouts from the caudex following fire [3].
FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find Fire Regimes".
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [22]:
Caudex, growing points in soil
Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
Secondary colonizer - off-site seed
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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.
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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.
References
SPECIES: Aquilegia canadensis
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: https://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]
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