''Aquilegia ballii'' is a

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (, buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family (biology), family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 spec ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Description

''Aquilegia ballii'' is a perennial

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

growing to high. The

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

is thick and covered with the remains of previous years' foliage. The stem is robust, smooth, and branched towards the top; the branches may be pubescent or glandular. The basal leaves are green on their upper surface and pale green on the underside,

biternate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

or triternate (i.e. with three stalks, each with three leaflets that divide into three lobes), and have pubescent leaf stalks up to long. The flowers have white or slightly bluish

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s long and white petals long with blue, slightly curved

nectar spur A nectar spur is a hollow extension of a part of a flower. The spur may arise from various parts of the flower: the sepals, petals, or hypanthium, and often contain tissues that secrete nectar Nectar, (nectaries). Nectar spurs are present in many ...

s of length. Both the sepals and petals are green at the tip and sparsely hairy. The anthers are bright yellow.

Taxonomy

''Aquilegia ballii'' was described by René Verriet de Litardière and René Maire as the variety ''ballii'' of ''

Aquilegia vulgaris ''Aquilegia vulgaris'' is a species of perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Aquilegia'' (columbine) in the family Ranunculaceae. Commonly called the common columbine, European crowfoot, and granny's bonnet, it presently possesses the most exp ...

'' in 1930. It was reassessed as a subspecies ''ballii'' of ''A. vulgaris'' by Alain Dobignard and Denis Jordan in 1987, and finally as a separate species in 2012 by Enio Nardi.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''ballii'' honours the Irish naturalist John Ball (1818–1889), who collected one of the first known specimens of the plant in the vicinity of the mountain .

Distribution and habitat

''Aquilegia ballii'' is endemic to the

High Atlas The High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas, is a mountain range in central Morocco, North Africa, the highest part of the Atlas Mountains. The High Atlas rises in the west at the Atlantic Ocean and stretches in an eastern direction to the Moro ...

mountains of Morocco, where it grows in damp meadows, by streams, and in damp rocky places at altitudes of .

Conservation

, the species has not been assessed for the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

References

External links

Photo
of ''Aquilegia ballii'' by Colin W. Hughes on

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q88862723 ballii Endemic flora of Morocco Plants described in 2012 Taxa named by Enio Nardi