Myriad Botanical Gardens - Oklahoma City, USA

Common name: Columbine

Family: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)

Distribution: North America

Hardiness: 5a

Life form: Perennial plant

Comments: This is a clump-forming perennial that is grown not only for its flowers, but also for its fern-like foliage. Columbine can be seen flowering during late spring through early summer. The flowers are yellow and bell shaped with a spur on the bottom. This plant is frost hardy and prefers a location with dappled shade to protect it from the heat of the summer. This variety of columbine is widely grown in the nursery trade but fascinatingly enough its only native range is a single site in Texas, the Capote waterfalls of the Sierra Vieja Mountains. Bees and hummingbirds are attracted to its yellow flowers that have long spurs. Most columbine are short lived perennials but will continue multiply in your garden by seed and off sets of rhizomes. And they are very drought tolerant once established.