With numerous, bushy stems 1–4-feet tall and wide and a mass of bright-green foliage, this plant displays one of the most striking flowers you’ll see in nature, or in garden settings. Note the distinctive yellow flower with spreading petals and long spurs.

FLOWERS: April-September. Yellow, showy, 3–5 inches long, erect on stems (not nodding); 5 petal-like sepals, lance-shaped to oval, 3/4–1 1/2-inches (20–36 mm) long, spreading perpendicular to the flower; 5 petals with oblong blades, 1/2–1-inch (13-23 mm) long, with straight spurs 1 1/2-2 1/2 inch (42-65 mm) long pointing backward.

LEAVES: Basal, alternate on stem. Leaves compound, on stems (petioles) to 7 3/4-inches (20 cm) long; blades divided into 3 spreading leaflets 1/2–2 1/8-inches (11-55 mm) long, each with 3 lobes.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, gravelly loam soils, moist canyons, spring banks; pinion-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,000-9,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 5 species of Columbine in NM, 2 with yellow flowers. Chaplin’s Golden Columbine, Aquilegia chaplinei, endemic to the Guadalupe Mountains, has shorter spurs, 1 3/16–2 3/8-inches (30–40 mm) long. Numerous cultivars of A. chrysantha are available for gardens.

NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Otero, Sandoval, Socorro, Lincoln, Grant, Sierra.