Weeds of Australia - Fact Sheet

Top Scientific Name Family Common Names Origin Naturalised Distribution Notes

Scientific Name

Aquilegia vulgaris L.

Family

Ranunculaceae

Common Names

columbine, European columbine, European crowfoot, granny's bonnet

Origin

Native to northern Africa (i.e. Algeria and Morocco) and Europe (i.e. Ireland, UK, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Albania, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, France, Portugal, Spain, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, western Ukraine and western Russia).

Naturalised Distribution

Naturalised in some parts of Victoria and sparingly naturalised in New South Wales and Tasmania.

Naturalised overseas in large parts of eastern USA, Canada and outside its native range in Europe.

Notes

This species is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria, where it has spread from gardens into nearby natural habitats. It has only become naturalised relatively recently, first being recorded in 1988, and is of most concern in high-altitude heathland areas in the sub-alpine and alpine regions of south-eastern Australia.

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) is listed as an environmental weed at Falls Creek in northern Victoria, and is also present in other alpine areas in this state (i.e. at Mount Buffalo, Mount Buller and Mount Stirling). It also appears on some local (e.g. Frankston City) and regional (i.e. in the Goulburn Broken Catchment) environmental weed lists in other parts of this state.

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris ) has also been recorded in treeless vegetation in surveys of the Australian Alps, and was very recently recorded as naturalised in wet sclerophyll forest at Katoomba, in the New South Wales central tablelands region.