Species
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Aquilegia atrata Koch

Dark Columbine, Schwarze Akelei

Climate known 75 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Aquilegia atrata, the dark columbine, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to the Alps and Apennine Mountains.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aquilegia atrata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aquilegia

Aquilegia, commonly known as columbines, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in subfamily Thalictroideae of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercups). The genus includes between 70 and 400 taxa with natural ranges across the Northern Hemisphere. Natural and introduced populations of Aquilegia exist on all continents but Antarctica. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aquilegia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
Koch
Native to
Austria, Germany, Switzerland +3
Wild records
1520 in range· 1158 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 11 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1419mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 163 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1419 mm a year, wettest July at 163 mm, driest February at 75 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -14.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? atrata W.D.J.Koch; Aquilegia atrata subsp. nigellastrum Murr; Aquilegia atrata var. cyanescens (Borbás ex Hegi) Munz; Aquilegia atrata var. major Erdner; Aquilegia atrata var. minor Erdner and 18 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1057 mm of 1419 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 19.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1419 mm a year, wettest July at 163 mm, driest February at 75 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1419 mm a year at the habitat, 1057 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 163 mm, driest February at 75 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 952 mm to 1960 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -14.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -14.6 °C, the absolute minimum -25.4 °C, about 107 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -12.8 °C to -2.8 °C), warmest day 20.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 1 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from -8 °C in Jan to 11 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1419 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1032 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -25.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-25.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 7–36RH 60–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1032 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -4–43 / -2–66 / 2–1010 / 5–1415 / 10–1818 / 14–2121 / 16–2420 / 16–2317 / 13–1913 / 9–156 / 2–92 / -3–5
Night °C-8 / -13–-3-7 / -12–-2-3 / -8–10 / -5–45 / -0–99 / 4–1211 / 6–1411 / 6–148 / 3–114 / -1–7-2 / -8–2-6 / -12–-1
Rain mm87 / 51–13575 / 46–119100 / 61–150100 / 65–146136 / 94–192152 / 91–215163 / 84–237155 / 85–231130 / 82–183108 / 75–175109 / 71–158104 / 68–158
DLI9 / 7–1315 / 13–1923 / 20–2831 / 29–3534 / 33–3836 / 33–3935 / 33–3930 / 28–3423 / 21–2716 / 14–1910 / 8–137 / 6–11
RH %61 / 56–6461 / 57–6360 / 58–6260 / 58–6261 / 59–6361 / 59–6461 / 58–6362 / 59–6463 / 61–6563 / 61–6563 / 59–6762 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 1032 grid cells holding the 1512 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 846:3815 (47.675, 10.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -25.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1032 distinct grid cells holding the 1512 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 846:3815 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 47.50_10.625, lapse-corrected -439 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 774 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Yugoslavia· introduced: Czechoslovakia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker47.745, 14.13 · in the densest population, 947 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1520 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1158 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 109 km away. 6 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1520 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrataAquilegia atrata

Photographs: (c) Patrick Hacker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aquilegia atrata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A DNA Barcoding Approach to Characterize Pollen Collected by Honeybees
Andrea Galimberti, Fabrizio De Mattia, Ilaria Bruni, Daniela Scaccabarozzi (2014) · PLoS ONE
Atti della Società italiana di scienze naturali.
Società italiana di scienze naturali, Societáa italiana di scienze naturali (1876) · Biodiversity Heritage Library (Smithsonian Institution)
A multi-marker DNA barcoding approach to save time and resources in vegetation surveys
Fabrizio De Mattia, Rodolfo Gentili, Ilaria Bruni, Andrea Galimberti (2012) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Révision des Xylocopinae (Hymenoptera : Apidae) de France et de Belgique
Michaël Terzo, Stéphanie Iserbyt, Pierre Rasmont (2007) · Annales de la Société entomologique de France (N S )
A practical and easy‐to‐scale protocol for removing chlorophylls from leaf extracts
Alice Fossati, Valeria Cavalloro, Daniela Rossi, Simona Collina (2025) · Applications in Plant Sciences
The vascular flora of the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Central Italy)
B. Pierini, Lorenzo Peruzzi (2025) · Italian Botanist
Erythroid induction activity of Aquilegia fragrans and Aquilegia pubiflora and identification of compounds using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
Nudrat Aziz, Muhammad Noman Khan, Faraz Ul Haq, Fayaz Ahmed (2020) · Journal of King Saud University - Science
Additions to the flora of northern Asia: alien vascular plant records in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District (Russia)
Vyacheslav V. Byalt, А. А. Егоров, Е. В. Письмаркина, О. В. Галанина (2020) · Check List
La vegetación del valle del rio Verdiana, Apeninos septentrionales (Pistoia-Italia Central).
Bruno Foggi, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Piera Papini, Simone Vergari (2011) · Lazaroa

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aquilegia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.