Photos of Aquilegia canadensis, Columbine.

Aquilegia canadensis, Columbine is one of our most beautiful native spring wildflowers found on moist rocky outcrops, shaded bluffs in mesic upland forests throughout Eastern North America. Historically, the roots, flowers and seeds were used similarly to it's European counterpart, Aquilegia vulgaris, as C.S. Rafinesque suggests in his Medical Flora (1830, p. 194) "diuretic, emmenagogue sudorific, antiscorbutic and aperitive [properties]. The seeds are acrid and are taken in vinous infusions for jaundice." Native groups used minute amounts of crushed seeds for headaches and as a “love charm” (uses related?).

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