Aquilegia parviflora is a species of flowering plant of the Aquilegia (columbine) genus in the family Ranunculaceae native to the Asian regions of Siberia, northern Mongolia, northern China, and Sakhalin.[2]: 110 [1] Its comparatively small blue-purple flowers give the plant its name and make it less popular with gardeners than other columbines.
| Aquilegia parviflora | |
|---|---|
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| Aquilegia parviflora flowers | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Ranunculaceae |
| Genus: | Aquilegia |
| Species: | A. parviflora
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| Binomial name | |
| Aquilegia parviflora | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Aquilegia thalictroides Schltdl. 1831 | |
Description
edit
Aquilegia parviflora grows to roughly 40 centimetres (16 in) tall with stems of between 1 millimetre (0.039 in) and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) thick.[2]: 110 [3]
The species has small flowers. The sepals are blue-purple and range between 15 millimetres (0.59 in) and 20 millimetres (0.79 in) long.[2]: 110 The sepals spread and are ovate or oblong-ovate in shape.[3] The petal blades can be blue-purple or white and are between 3 millimetres (0.12 in) and 5 millimetres (0.20 in) long.[2]: 110 Stamens are between 8 millimetres (0.31 in) and 11 millimetres (0.43 in) long. Nectar spurs are short compared to other Aquilegia and heavily curved, extending only between 3 millimetres (0.12 in) and 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in length.[3] Spurless instances of A. parviflora have been observed.[2]: 54
Taxonomy
editAquilegia parviflora received its binomial in 1815 within Carl Friedrich von Ledebour's volume 5 of the Mémoires de l'Académie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. Avec l'Histoire de l'Académie.[1] The type locality is along the river Lena in Siberia.[3] The name parviflora means "small-flowered".[2]: 110 The species received the heterotypic synonym of Aquilegia thalictroides from Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal in 1831.[1]
Philip A. Munz noted that some of the plant's physical characteristics – including its small flowers and short spurs – alongside its north-eastern Siberian range were sufficient to characterize A. parviflora as a distinct species.[3]
According to a 2024 phylogenetic study by Chinese researchers Huaying Wang and Wei Zhang, chloroplast DNA suggests Aquilegia amurensis is genetically more closely related to A. parviflora – with which it shares a clade – and the North American columbine clade than with Aquilegia japonica[note 1] that more closely resembles A. amurensis. However, a 2013 study constructed a phylogenetic tree that suggested that the inverse was true; Wang and Zhang theorized that this was the result of the 2013 study utilizing a different variant of A. japonica.[4]
Distribution
editThe species is native to the Asian regions of Siberia, northern Mongolia, and northern China. In Russia, its presence has been documented in Amur Oblast, the former Chita Oblast (now part of Zabaykalsky Krai), Irkutsk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, Primorsky Krai, Sakha Republic, and the island of Sakhalin. In China, it is found in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria.[1] It favors the woodlands and slopes of its range.[2]: 110
In 1901, botanist and later Prime Minister of Finland A. K. Cajander traveled to along the lower portion of the Lena River in Siberia. Among the vascular plant species he gathered examples of was A. pavriflora, retaining four specimens. His notes indicate the plant's presence from the mouth of the Vilyuy (a tributary of the Lena) into subalpine zones, with occurrence of the species being "[f]airly frequent to very frequent". He recorded that its frequency decreased north of the Vilyuy's mouth until it ceased "halfway between the Vilyuy and Agrafena". He located examples in larch forests and on the margins of forests, saying the plant preferred "half-open places". Cajander said A. parviflora was "one of the most characteristic plants of the tangia by the Middle Lena" but that it was never present in alluvial plains.[5]
Cultivation
editGardeners, who often favor columbine plants with larger flowers, tend to avoid acquiring the species.[2]: 110 Cultivation of A. parviflora is generally reserved to collectors.[2]: 110 In 1946, botanist Philip A. Munz noted that the flower did not appear to be cultivated in the United States.[3]
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e "Aquilegia parviflora Ledeb". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nold, Robert (2003). Columbines: Aquilegia, Paraquilegia, and Semiaquilegia. Portland, OR: Timber Press. ISBN 0881925888.
- ^ a b c d e f Munz, Philip A. (March 25, 1946). Aquilegia: The Cultivated and Wild Columbines. Gentes Herbarum. Vol. VII. Ithaca, NY: The Bailey Hortorium of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. p. 27 – via Archive.org.
- ^ Wang, Huaying; Zhang, Wei; Yu, Yanan; Fang, Xiaoxue; Zhang, Tengjiao; Xu, Luyuan; Gong, Lei; Xiao, Hongxing (November 2024). "Biased Gene Introgression and Adaptation in the Face of Chloroplast Capture in Aquilegia amurensis". Systematic Biology. 73 (6): 886–900. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syae039.
- ^ Hämet-Ahti, Leena (1970). "A. K. Cajander's vascular plant collection from the Lena River, Siberia, with his ecological and floristic notes". Annales Botanici Fennici. 7 (3): 255, 288. JSTOR 23724659.
