Garden Plants - Columbine

Due to the tragedy which occurred at a high school bearing its name in Colorado, that state's official flower will probably be associated with violent death for decades ahead, but columbine derives from 'columba,' the Latin word for dove - a symbol of peace, gentleness and love. That reputation apparently transferred to the flower, with Francis Bacon referring to 'columbine innocency.' In European pantomime, Columbine was Harlequin's dancing sweetheart, and the Italian 'columbina' a term of affection. Columbine has also been known as culver, culverwort, or culverkey after 'culfre,' the Saxon word for pigeon, but in its Latin title, aquilegia, from aquila = eagle, do we get a fiercer sense of the plant.

Its long association with birds has several possible explanations. Some think the flower's circle of spurs resembles doves perched around a fountain. Others contend that those spurs look like eagle talons. Perhaps its appearance of insubstantiality is what caused the columbine to stand for 'folly' in the Language of Flowers. A purple variety declares the giver to be 'resolved to win,' while a red type indicates that he/she is 'anxious and trembling.'

Native Americans used wild columbine to relieve heart troubles and fevers, as a sedative, and as a wash for poison ivy. Braves rubbed the ground seeds into their hands as a love potion and perfume. Europeans treated sore throats with the leaves and kidney stones with the roots. A mixture of six herbs, including columbine, was reputed to destroy the pestilence 'be it never so fell.' Since children were sometimes accidentally poisoned by the plant, however, it is probably too dangerous for modern use.

Garden Columbine photograph by bc anna, used under a creative commons attribution licence