Woodland's Royal Crown

Grows in woodlands
showy, drooping
bell-like flowers
bearing distinctly
backward-pointing
tubular spurs.

Spurs contain nectar
attract hummingbirds
and long-tongued insects
especially adapted
for reaching
this sweet secretion.

Slender, graceful
many-branched perennial
solitary flowers
scarlet and yellow
nodding at ends
of delicate branches.

Five petals red to pink
yellow inside
short, spreading lip
and slender spur
with nectar-filled
terminal knob.

Leaves long-stalked
and compound
divided into
nine to twenty-seven
light green
three-lobed leaflets.

Following pollination
flower tilts upright
dried ovaries become
rattleboxes in the wind
releasing seeds
as they age.

Nodding flowers with
upward-turned petals
create a scarlet
crown of royalty
numerous yellow stamens
form a hanging column.

I have tasted
the sweet secretion
of the Wild Columbine.
Here's a small sample;
a gift from God
to you.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Photo Location:  Ada Township, (Ada Township) Kent County, Michigan