Historical Lore: Young Native American men mixed the seeds with their smoking tobacco to give it a more pleasant aroma and this may have been considered a love charm. It was considered to possess a persuasive power and was so used in council meetings.

Medical Uses: The root tea or chewed root and sometimes the leaves, has been used as a diuretic and to treat diarrhea and other stomach troubles. The root contains aquilegunine, berberine, magnoflorine and other alkaloids.
Warning: The plant could be toxic if taken in large amounts especially to children.

Similar Species: European Columbine (A. vulgaris) which has shorter spurs on the flowers which may be blue, violet, white or pink has become naturalized in some areas.

See the links below this image for other images. (1) © 2009 Daniel W Reed   E-mail      Image use policy Shooting Location: Wilson County, Tennessee Camera Canon EOS 40D camera , Release - Remote Switch RS- , Tripod - Manfroto tripod , Lens - EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro Lens , 2 Sec. f/16 ISO=100 OTHER IMAGES These images open in a new window. You may need to resize the window to view the entire image. Columbine (Aquilegia canadenis) wide view showing foliage.  © Daniel Reed "

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One of the best general guides to wildflowers of the North Eastern and North Central United States. Newcomb's key is an excellent, simple method for identifying plants. Newcomb has drawings for almost every plant mentioned that are excellent aids to identifying the species. Though only the more common plants are covered this is often the first book I pick up when trying to identify a wildflower.

Wildflo wers of Tennessee the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians

This is perhaps the best of many field guides covering this region. Featuring 446 excellent color photographs (located with the text) and mentioning as similar to those illustrated are another 800 or so species for a total coverage of over 1,200 species. The start of each family section includes line drawings of some of the species showing important features. The text includes the usual description, bloom season, range, habitat and additionally includes information such as medical uses and lore and how the species was named. This is the official field guide of the Tennessee Native Plant Society.