Aquilegia L.

Perennial erect herbs; rootstock woody, erect, short. Leaves compound, 1 - 3-ternate, with entire segments. Flowers large, 2 - 5 cm wide, bisexual, actinomorphic, variously coloured, white, yellow, red or purple, usually drooping, some fragrant. Sepals 5, regular, petaloid, deciduous. Petals (honey leaves) 5, infundibular, each with a flat limb and backwardly produced hollow straight or recurved spur. Stamens many, the innermost staminodes without anthers and scale-like. Carpels 5 or more free, with long styles, persistent in fruit. Follicles several, free, many-seeded, with transverse striations; seeds with crustaceous to granulose testa.

North temperate zones; ca 100 species, 5 species in India confined to Himalayas.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves all basal; stems leafless or with one small leaf

4. Aquilegia nivalis

b. Leaves basal and cauline; stems leafy

2

2a. Spur much curved

3

b. Spur long and straight or only sliahtly booked at tip

4

3a. Sepals pubescent

5. Aquilegia pubiflora

b. Sepals galandular-ciliate

2. Aquilegia kareliniana

4a. Herbs pubescent or glandular; sepals obtuse

1. Aquilegia fragrans

b. Herbs glaucous; sepals ovate-acute

3. Aqullegia moorcroftiana

List of Lower Taxa