Aquilegia aurea
Aquilegia aurea is a perennial flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae native to Bulgaria and small areas of North Macedonia and Greece.
Description
Aquilegia aurea grows to with smooth or lightly hairy stems and large, nodding, light yellow or greenish-yellow flowers with a hooked nectar spur and protruding stamens. It forms a large underground mass to maintain stability among the loose rocks and scree of its environment.
Taxonomy
Aquilegia aurea belongs to a clade containing most of the European columbine species, which appear to have diverged from their closest relatives in Asia in the early Pleistocene, a little over 2 million years ago.
Etymology
The specific epithet aurea means "golden" in Latin, referring to the colour of the flowers.
Aquilegia aurea is native to mountainous regions of western and southwestern Bulgaria, in Vitosha, Rila, Pirin and the western Rhodope Mountains, as well as the Belasica mountains in southeastern North Macedonia and northeastern Greece. It grows in rocky alpine meadows at altitudes of.
Ecology
Aquilegia aurea blooms in June and July. It is one of the diagnostic species for the high-altitude Aquilegio aureae-Doronicetum columnae plant community that occurs in almost all of the main Bulgarian mountain ranges. The leaf miner Phytomyza minuscula is known to attack the leaves, along with the fungus Erysiphe aquilegiae var. aquilegiae, which causes powdery mildew, and the smut fungus Urocystis aquilegiae, which creates pustules on the leaves.
Conservation
, the species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List.