Colorado blue columbine
Colorado's blue-and-white state flower, its long spurs full of nectar that only a hawkmoth's tongue can reach.
Colorado blue columbine at a glance
Aquilegia coerulea KOL-um-byn; Aquilegia coerulea is ah-kwih-LEE-jee-uh koh-ROO-lee-uh
- Type
- Plant · wildflowers
- Diet
- Producer
- Size
- Usually 1 to 3 feet tall, about knee to waist height on a kid, with flowers the width of a golf ball and spurs longer than a crayon.
- Lifespan
- A perennial wildflower that comes back from the same root most years.
- Conservation
- Not formally assessed by IUCN; secure and common across its Rocky Mountain range
A green plant that makes its own food from sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. Its true food for pollinators is the sugary nectar packed into the tips of its five long spurs.
Is it safe to touch?
Harmless to touch or smell. Colorado law protects it on public land: picking more than 25 stems, buds, or blossoms in one day is a misdemeanor with a fine up to $50. Look, don't pick.
The flower’s five spurs point backward like a little crown of horns, each one a narrow tube almost two inches long and packed with nectar at the very tip. A bee’s tongue gives up long before it reaches that far. What can reach it is a hawkmoth, hovering at dusk with a proboscis built for exactly this job — some hawkmoths carry a tongue four inches long, coiled up like a party favor until a flower like this one calls for it. The spur is a lock, and across the Rocky Mountains, evolution built the one key that fits.
Colorado schoolchildren picked the columbine as their favorite wildflower in an 1881 vote. The vote sat unofficial for eighteen years, until a women’s club in Cripple Creek noticed the oversight and pushed a bill through in 1899 naming the columbine the state flower. Twenty-six years after that, the legislature came back and added teeth: picking more than twenty-five stems, buds, or blossoms in one day on public land became a misdemeanor, with a fine up to fifty dollars.
Find one blooming in a meadow at Rocky Mountain or Grand Teton and the smart move is the same one the moth already knows: leave the flower alone and let the spur do its work. Come back at dusk if you want to see who the lock was built for.
Did you know?
- Its five spurs are shaped to fit a hawkmoth's long tongue. Some hawkmoths carry a proboscis up to 4 inches long, reaching nectar no bee can get to.
- Colorado's state flower law does more than name the columbine. It makes picking more than 25 blossoms a day on public land a fineable offense.
- Colorado schoolchildren chose the columbine as their favorite wildflower in an 1881 vote, but the legislature didn't make it official for another 18 years.
Common questions
Why is the columbine Colorado's state flower?
Colorado schoolchildren voted it their favorite wildflower in 1881. It took until 1899 for the state legislature to make that vote official.
Can you pick a Colorado columbine?
Not more than 25 stems, buds, or blossoms a day on public land. It's against state law, with a fine up to $50, so it's easier just to leave it growing.
What pollinates a columbine?
Mostly hawkmoths. The flower's long spurs hold nectar too deep for most bees, but a hawkmoth's long tongue reaches all the way in.
Where do Colorado blue columbines grow?
In cool, moist spots in the Rocky Mountains, from aspen groves and meadows up into rocky alpine slopes, usually blooming in summer.