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List of Aquilegia species

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Aquilegia is a genus comprising 130 species according to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Plants of the World Online as of May 2025.[1] According to different taxonomic authorities, the genus Aquilegia comprises between 70 and over 400 taxa. Some totals correspond more closely with Philip A. Munz's 1946 total of 67, while online Tropicos and the International Plant Names Index have totals of over 200 and 500, respectively.[2]: 33 

The American botanist and gardener Robert Nold attributed the substantial total of named species, subspecies, and varieties to the 19th-century practice of assigning names to even minutely distinct specimens. However, Nold also held that overly broad species could increase the number of varietal names.[3]: 41–42  The Italian botanist Enio Nardi stated that authors assessing Aquilegia as containing fewer than 100 species "either mask or underestimate their splitting into subspecies, many of which were originally described at the species level" and remain accepted as species in taxonomic indices. [2]: 33 

The type species of the genus is A. vulgaris, a European columbine with high levels of physical variability.[3]: 124–125 [2]: 208  Most European Aquilegia are morphologically similar to A. vulgaris, sometimes to the point where visually them discerning from A. vulgaris is difficult. However, A. vulgaris is also considered to encompass Iberian and North African columbines that are not accepted as separate species for reasons that Nardi said were founded in "tradition, more cultural than scientific".[3]: 35 [2]: 217 

List of taxa

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References

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  1. ^ "Aquilegia L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Nardi, Enio (2015). Il Genere Aquilegia L. (Ranunculaceae) in Italia/The Genus Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) in Italy: Aquilegia Italicarum in Europaearum conspectu descriptio. Translated by Coster-Longman, Christina. Florence: Edizioni Polistampa. ISBN 9788859615187.
  3. ^ a b c Nold, Robert (2003). Columbines: Aquilegia, Paraquilegia, and Semiaquilegia. Portland, OR: Timber Press. ISBN 0881925888 – via Internet Archive.
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