The flower is formed of 5 sepals and 5 petals, alternately arranged and all of them showy. The sepals are deep blue or sometimes quite pale, forming a wide saucer-like star 3 inches across; the petals form a white inner cup 1¾ inches across, and stretch back between the sepals as hollow, slender 2-inch spurs. Plants are 2 feet or more high of several delicate stems, usually carrying at their tops numerous flowers. The deeply cut leaves are mainly concentrated at the plant base. Grows in rich soil in montane zone, but extends into foothills and up to timberline. Blooms June-July.

Colorado’s queenly state flower speaks for itself much more eloquently than humans can speak for it. No portrait can do it justice. We have found it in the very glade near Palmer Lake where James first saw it and named it coerulea for its celestial blue. We have found it in countless aspen groves of the montane zone and finally on rocky scree near timberline (a more compact plant there—with flowers sometimes white or of a rosy hue). Always there is the thrill of real discovery—a new realization of its beauty. A less common and even more exciting find is the dwarf columbine, Aquilegia saximontana, that grows between rocks above timberline.