Aquilegia glandulosa Fisch.

Flower stems 20-30 cm. Leaves biternate, nearly 20 cm long. Flowers 2 to 5, large, 3-5 cm diam., bright violet-blue or sky-blue. V - early spring to late autumn. Spring leaves appear Aprilwith later growing July. Young leaves can persist through the winter. Fl - May. Fr - July. P - by seed. Flower the year after sowing. Requires partial shade. Z 4.

Stems 20--40 cm tall, apically pubescent, unbranched or apically branched. Basal leaves few, (1-or)2-ternate; petiole 6--16 cm; leaf blade abaxially sparsely pubescent or glabrous, adaxially glabrous; lateral leaflets obliquely flabellate, unequally 2-parted; central leaflet orbicular-obovate to flabellate, 1.5--4 × 2--4 cm, 3-lobed and segments with 2 or 3 obtuse teeth. Stem leaves absent or 1. Inflorescences 1(--3)-flowered; bracts 1--3, lanceolate to oblong. Flowers 6--9 cm in diam. Pedicel 2--8 cm, densely covered with spreading white hairs. Sepals blue, spreading, ovate to oblong-ovate, 3--4.5 × 1.5--2.5 cm, apex acute or obtuse. Petals blue or white, suberect, orbicular-ovate, 1.5--2.5 × 1--1.5 cm, apex obtuse to rounded; spur 0.6--1.2 cm, apically conspicuously incurved. Stamens 5--10 cm; anthers blackish, narrowly ellipsoid. Staminodes linear, ca. 8 mm. Pistils 8--10, densely spreading villous. Follicles 2--3 cm; persistent styles 6--7 mm. Fl. Jun--Aug.

Siberia (Altay, Sayans, Transbaykalia), Central Asia (Tarbagatay, Tien Shan), northwestern China and Mongolia. Alpine meadows, more rarely in forest zone, along stream-banks and on rocks.

Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].

Coniferous forests, grassy slopes, by rivers in valleys; 1900--2700 m.