Northern Blue Columbine

Featured in Alaska~Beyond Your Dreams – September 2, 2009
Featured in The Beauty of Nature – August 19, 2009
Featured in Human.Animal.Nature. – August 11, 2009

Blue or Purple Flowers ( Five Petals with One or More Spurs )
Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae)
Northern Blue Columbine
Aquilegia brevistyla

Season: June/July
Habitat: Montane to Subalpine Woods
Height: Up to 50 cm

Description: Remarkably similar to its cultivated relative, the blue columbine is easy to identify. Only the columbines have 5 sepals and 5 tubular petals which extend behind the flower in a distinctive spur. The sepals are blue, while the petals are white, becoming blue towards the basal spur. The leaves are compound, divided into three leaflets, each of which is further divided into 3 (sometimes 5) leaflets. The leaflets are deeply lobed, almost maple-like in nature, with rounded teeth. The leaves are very delicate, and grow in large numbers.
(mountainnature.com) Accessed on the internet August 10, 2009

Photographed near Homer, Alaska.

Canon Rebel XT