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Aquilegia moorcroftiana Wall. ex Royle

Ranunculaceae · Tadzhikistan, Afghanistan +4

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Aquilegia moorcroftiana Wall. ex Royle: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Wall.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-29.6°C
Record low -35.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
11°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
493mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–56DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes February to May and July to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Aquilegia moorcroftiana is a species of flowering plant in the genus Aquilegia (columbines) in the family Ranunculaceae. It is native to central Asia, with a range spanning Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Nepal, and Tibet. A. moorcroftiana grows at the highest elevation of any species of columbine, with examples frequently found at over 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) of elevation.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aquilegia moorcroftiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aquilegia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (348 mm of 474 mm) falls in February to May and July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean -5.5 °C against a yearly mean of -8.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and August to November.

Rain

474 mm in the median year at the habitat, 348 mm of it February to May and July to September. Wettest month August at 61 mm, driest month November at 16 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 309 mm to 696 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 493 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 474 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 56 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 57).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -29.6 °C, the absolute minimum -35.3 °C, 13,757 frost nights in 44 years, 312.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 18.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -28.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -30.9 °C to -23.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 11.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -29.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -333 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Aquilegia moorcroftiana through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 11 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -28.4 °C; 474 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°frost18.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-35.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 22–56RH 55–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 43 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-19 / -21–-16-17 / -19–-13-12 / -14–-9-7 / -9–-4-2 / -4–24 / 1–711 / 8–1311 / 9–147 / 3–9-3 / -9–0-10 / -16–-7-15 / -20–-13
Night °C-28 / -31–-24-27 / -29–-22-23 / -26–-19-19 / -22–-15-14 / -17–-10-9 / -11–-5-1 / -4–20 / -2–3-7 / -10–-3-17 / -21–-13-24 / -27–-20-27 / -30–-23
Rain mm37 / 20–7546 / 27–8951 / 30–9455 / 37–9840 / 28–6624 / 17–4155 / 23–8061 / 28–9440 / 19–5718 / 13–2716 / 11–2531 / 19–47
DLI25 / 18–2832 / 24–3542 / 34–4551 / 45–5356 / 52–5754 / 52–5747 / 46–5143 / 41–4540 / 35–4234 / 28–3727 / 20–3022 / 16–25
RH %66 / 59–6966 / 60–6964 / 59–6762 / 58–6561 / 57–6460 / 56–6459 / 56–6159 / 56–6157 / 53–6155 / 51–6358 / 53–6463 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 43 grid cells holding the 51 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1141:5152 (32.925, 77.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -35.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -29.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 18.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 43 distinct grid cells holding 51 of the 51 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1141:5152 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_77.500, lapse-corrected -333 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4652 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTadzhikistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.35, 74.65 · in the densest population, 43 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 83 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 51 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 3 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1332 km away. 32 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 83 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Corydalis crassifolia Papaveraceae Saxifraga pulvinaria Saxifraga pulvinaria Cushion Saxifrage Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross Potentilla cathaclines Rosaceae Rheum spiciforme Rheum spiciforme Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Svyatoslav KnyazevDelphinium brunonianum Delphinium brunonianum Musk larkspur Photo: CC BY, Johannes S.Potentilla pamirica Potentilla pamirica Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, avocat

Other Aquilegia 56 in the reference

Aquilegia alpina Aquilegia alpina Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodon Aquilegia aragonensis Ranunculaceae Aquilegia atrata Aquilegia atrata Dark Columbine Photo: CC BY, Patrick HackerAquilegia atrovinosa Aquilegia atrovinosa Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinAquilegia aurea Aquilegia aurea Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Annie EvankowAquilegia barbaricina Aquilegia barbaricina Barbaricina Colombine Photo: CC BY, Mario PappacodaAquilegia barnebyi Aquilegia barnebyi Shale columbine Photo: CC BY, Anders HastingsAquilegia bernardii Aquilegia bernardii Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben CostamagnaAquilegia bertolonii Aquilegia bertolonii Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, julie elsenAquilegia borodinii Aquilegia borodinii Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinAquilegia brevistyla Aquilegia brevistyla Blue columbine Photo: CC BY, Allison GrayAquilegia buergeriana Aquilegia buergeriana Dwarf columbine Photo: CC BY, ippanjin all 57 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aquilegia fragrans var. kanaoriensis; Aquilegia kanaoriensis; Aquilegia microphylla; Aquilegia moorcroftiana f. microphylla; Aquilegia moorcroftiana subsp. microphylla and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
Wall. ex Royle
Native to
Tadzhikistan, Afghanistan, Tibet +3
Wild records
83 in range · 3 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 7278134 is Aquilegia moorcroftiana Wall.; the page links Kew's Aquilegia moorcroftiana Wall. ex Royle, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_77.500, lapse-corrected -333 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…