Columbine
Halq’emeylem Name
Currently unknown
Latin Name
Aquilegia vulgaris
Pronunciation
About European Columbine
“Tolerates a wide range of soils…..When foliage depreciates, plants may be cut to the ground. Plants may be easily grown from seed, will self seed in the garden and will naturalize in the garden over time. …different varieties of columbine may cross-pollinate in the garden producing seed that is at variance with either or both parents.
“Aquilegia vulgaris known as columbine (also commonly called European crowfoot and granny’s bonnet) is native to Europe. It has escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of eastern North America. …Upper leaves are divided into lobed leaflets that are usually three-lobed at the tips. Many different cultivars are available in commerce, featuring flowers that are single or double and short-spurred or spurless, in a variety of colors ranging from blue to violet to white to pink to red.
“Genus name comes from the Latin word for eagle in reference to the flower’s five spurs which purportedly resemble an eagle’s talon.
“Specific epithet comes from the Latin word meaning common.
“Columbine comes from the Latin word columba meaning dove-like. Common name of granny’s bonnet is in reference to the spreading bonnet-like appearance of the flower petals.” (MBG)
Cultivars of aquilegia vulgaris often have the pinker blooms and this is what we have in our garden.
Connections
Shakespeare
Columbine is one of the flowers the young lady Ophelia speaks with in Hamlet, after Hamlet (her former boyfriend and probably lover) has killed her father. Ophelia says “There’s fennel for you, and columbines,” possibly addressing the Claudius (Evans, 1974), the usurping king who has killed his own brother, old Hamlet (Jenkins, 1982) or Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, who quickly marries Claudius after old Hamlet’s death (Evans, 1974). With its suggestive shape, Columbine could symbolize marital infidelity or sexual activity and Ophelia would then be commenting on the Queen’s quick remarriage after her husband’s death. It could also symbolize ingratitude (Evans, 1974).
The flower is also mentioned in the masque at the end of the comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost. As followers of the king joke together, Armando claims to represent in the masque Hector–a Greek hero and a “flower” of chivalry or heroism–and others deflate his pretensions:
Armado: I am that flower
Dumain: that mint
Longaville: that columbine. (5.2)
Indigenous Knowledge
We are currently unaware of Indigenous knowledge regarding Aquilegia vulgaris.
Gallery
References
Images: Teresa Carlson
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286072
Evans, G. Blakemore (1974). The Riverside Shakespeare. Houghton, Mifflin etc.
Jenkins, Harold, Ed. (1982) Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Arden Shakespeare (2nd series).