Aquilegia gegica
| Aquilegia gegica | |
|---|---|
| Preserved specimen of Aquilegia gegica | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Ranunculaceae |
| Genus: | Aquilegia |
| Species: | A. gegica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Aquilegia gegica Jabr.-Kolak.
| |
Aquilegia gegica is a species of flowering plant in the genus Aquilegia (columbine) in the family Ranunculaceae endemic to the western South Caucasus region in Abkhazia and Georgia.[1] The plant's flower petals are light blue.
Description
Aquilegia gegica is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Aquilegia (columbines).[1] The pubescence (coverage by small hairs) of the plant gives it a greyish appearance. Leaves on the lower portion of the stem are double trifoliate. There are leaves further up the stem.[2]: 103
The species produces flowers that are small for the genus, measuring between 30 mm (1.2 in) and 50 mm (2.0 in) in diameter.[3]: 566 It has long petals that are light blue. The nectar spurs possess a funnel shape and transition from blue in the upper portion to whitish at the lower end.[2]: 103 The plant prefers temperate environments.[1]
Taxonomy
Aquilegia gegica was received its binomial when it was first described in 1953 by Vitta Savelievna Jabrova-Kolakovskaja in the Zametki po Sistematike i Geografii Rastenii. The type locality for the species is Abkhazia, the valley the Gega river.[2]: 103
A. gegica is capable of producing fertile hybrid offspring with Aquilegia colchica, another Aquilegia species endemic to the western Caucasus.[2]: 103
Distribution
It is native to the western Transaucasus region of the western Caucasus.[1] The plant can be found in Abkhazia and Georgia.[2]: 103 Like A. colchina and Aquilegia kubanica, A. gegica is endemic in the Caucasus; the only other Caucasian Aquilegia, Aquilegia olympica, has a substantially more expansive range.[4]
Conservation
As of 2024, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, utilizing the Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1, predicts that Aquilegia gegica is a "threatened" species with a confidence level of "confident".[1]
Cultivation
Botanist Robert Nold, in his 2003 book Columbines, said that he was unaware of any information regarding A. gegica besides its appearance on a website dedicated to endangered plants from Georgia.[5] The National Botanical Garden of Georgia has cultivated A. gegica derived from plants present on the Egrisi Ridge in the Chkhorotsqu Municipality in 2016.[2]: 103
References
- ^ a b c d e "Aquilegia gegica Jabr.-Kolak". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "Biological Peculiarities of F1 Generation of Hybrids of Two Georgian Endemic Species Aquilegia colchica Kem.-Nath. and Aquilegia gegica Jabr.-Kolak" (PDF). Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. 15 (2). 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Vassiljeva, Irina Mikhailovna (1991). "Aquilegia kubanica (Ranunculaceae) - Новый Вид с Кавказа" [Aquilegia kubanica (Ranunculaceae) - A New Species from the Caucasus]. Botanicheskiĭ Zhurnal (in Russian) (12): 1765–1768. ISSN 0006-8136.
- ^ Nold, Robert (2003). Columbines: Aquilegia, Paraquilegia, and Semiaquilegia. Portland, OR: Timber Press. p. 106. ISBN 0881925888 – via Internet Archive.
Further reading
- Nardi, Enio (2015). Il genere Aquilegia L. (Ranunculaceae). Polistampa. ISBN 9788859615187.