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Aquilegia sibirica

Aquilegia sibirica, the Siberian columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae native to the north-central Asian regions of Siberia, northern Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Xinjiang.[1][2] A hardy perennial plant, it prefers temperate environments.[1] The Siberian columbine can be between 1 foot (0.30 m) and 2 feet (0.61 m) tall with flowers that are lilac-blue and white in color.[3]

Aquilegia sibirica
Aquilegia sibirica (Siberian columbine)
Botanical illustration by Pierre Jean François Turpin
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Aquilegia
Species:
A. sibirica
Binomial name
Aquilegia sibirica
Synonyms[1]
List
    • Aquilegia bicolor Ehrh.
    • Aquilegia grandiflora Patrin ex DC.
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. bicolor Regel
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. concolor C.A.Mey.
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. discolor C.A.Mey.
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. grandiflora DC.
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. ircutiana Fisch., C.A.Mey. & Avé-Lall.
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. media Rapaics
    • Aquilegia sibirica var. stenopetala Regel
    • Aquilegia speciosa DC.
    • Aquilegia speciosa var. bicolor (Ehrh.) DC.
    • Aquilegia speciosa var. concolor DC.
    • Aquilegia vulgaris var. daurica Willd.
    • Aquilegia vulgaris var. sibirica L.
    • Aquilegia vulgaris var. speciosa Aiton

A. sibirica diverged as a separate species from Aquilegia ecalcarata–the only Aquilegia species to lack nectar spurs–between 4.5 and 6 million years ago. Crosses between the two species have been studied to determine what gene is responsible for Aquilegia nectar spurs. In Mongolia, A. sibirica is considered a medicinal herb and extracts from the plant have been determined to act as an antifungal agent.

Description

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In common with other Aquilegia species, the Siberian columbine possesses nectar spurs.[4] Pollination of A. sibirica is generally caused by bees.[5][note 1] It is also favored by other pollinators such as butterflies and, in the flower's introduced North American populations, hummingbirds.[6] A. sibirica is resistant to the fungal disease verticillium wilt.[7] The plant prefers temperate environments. Also in common with other Aquilegia, A. sibirica is a hardy perennial plant.[1][8] A. sibirica grows well in shady settings and tolerates various soils.[7]

The plant has nearly glabrous bi- and triternate leaves with leaflets that run between one and two inches across.[3] Stems are leafless, with many terminating in flowers.[9] Siberian columbine flowers are lilac-blue to white.[10] The flower is bisexual and features fruit that is indehiscent (meaning it does not split to release seeds) in the form of a follicle.[11] The plant may be between 1 foot (0.30 m) and 2 feet (0.61 m) tall in height.[3] In northern latitudes, the flower blooms between May and June.[10]

Petals on A. sibirica develop a curvature relatively early and at a shorter length–between 1 centimetre (0.39 in) and 2 centimetres (0.79 in)–than other Aquilegia species. The petals fold longitudinally. As nectar spurs of different Aquilegia species develop, they demonstrate greater variance. In the case of A. sibirica's nectar spurs, they possess greater curvature than those of A. formosa and A. chrysantha.[5]

Phytochemistry

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The plant has been considered a medicinal herb in Mongolia. Considered a "major therapeutic drug" in Asian traditional medicine, it has been used to treat diseases in women, asthma, rheumatism, and cardiovascular diseases. It was also known to inhibit Staphylococcus aureus, one of the bacteria responsible for staphylococcal infections.[12]

In the 21st century, extracts from A. sibirica have been researched for and found to possess antifungal qualities. Extracts showed the presence of chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid. Extractions performed with heat and methanol extracted more of the medically relevant compounds than those performed at room temperature or with other solvents.[12]

Taxonomy and evolution

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The Siberian columbine was first described with the binomial Aquilegia sibirica in 1783 within Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's botanical volume for Encyclopédie Méthodique.[13][14] The plant had been previously described as Aquilegia vulgaris var. sibirica in 1767 within the 12th edition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.[15] All 15 of the synonyms of A. sibirica are heterotypic synonyms, ones where the type specimen does not match or they have a different taxonomic rank.[1]

Table of Synonyms[1]
Name Year Rank
Aquilegia bicolor Ehrh. 1793 species
Aquilegia grandiflora Patrin ex DC. 1817 species
Aquilegia sibirica var. bicolor Regel 1862 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. concolor C.A.Mey. 1830 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. discolor C.A.Mey. 1830 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. grandiflora DC. 1817 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. ircutiana Fisch., C.A.Mey. & Avé-Lall. 1846 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. media Rapaics 1909 variety
Aquilegia sibirica var. stenopetala Regel 1856 variety
Aquilegia speciosa DC. 1817 species
Aquilegia speciosa var. bicolor (Ehrh.) DC. 1817 variety
Aquilegia speciosa var. concolor DC. 1817 variety
Aquilegia vulgaris var. daurica Willd. 1800 variety
Aquilegia vulgaris var. sibirica L. 1767 variety
Aquilegia vulgaris var. speciosa Aiton 1789 variety

Aquilegia species evolved relatively quickly after first appearing during the Late Miocene around 6.9 million years ago in East Asia. Aquilegia species diversified quickly and spread into both Europe and North America before migrating back into Asia. As a result, they are a well-known model system in evolutionary biology but confirming an accurate phylogenetic tree showing the relationships between the species in the genus has proved difficult. A. sibirica, though native to Asia, is closely related to A. vulgaris of Central Europe.[16]

By 1892, the Siberian columbine was also identified as a close relative of the northern North American Aquilegia brevistyla, the smallflower columbine.[17] The plant's appearance is very proximate to that of Aquilegia flabellata native to the Japanese Alps.[8][18] A. sibirica is considered a member of the A. flabellata species complex.[19][note 2] A wild hybrid between A. sibirica and Aquilegia glandulosa, Aquilegia × gubanovii, was identified in Mongolia in 1991.[22] A. sibirica and Aquilegia ecalcarata diverged as separate species between 4.5 and 6 million years ago and remain cross-compatible.[23] Philip A. Munz identified that it had been hybridized with A. vulgaris to produce to produce A. ×garnieriana.[24]

Crosses between A. sibirica and A. ecalcarata–the only Aquilegia species that lacks nectar spurs on its petals–have been studied to identify the gene responsible for spurred petals. The nectar spurs present in Aquilegia are an unusual evolutionary trait. In order to determine the gene responsible for the trait, a 2020 paper by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard University, and Stanford University utilized A. sibirica (alongside A. chrysantha and A. formosa) as a spurred Aquilegia taxa to compare against the spurless species. This research identified a gene named POPVICH (POP) as responsible for cell proliferation during the early stage of spur development. POP appeared at higher levels in the pedals of the spurred Aquilegia studied than in A. ecalcarata.[25][4][note 3]

Aquilegia daingolica is a stabilized ancient hybrid of A. glandulosa, Aquilegia oxysepala, and probably A. sibirica. It is similar in its flowers and fruit aggregates to A. glandulosa and in its dark anthers and black clublike spur tips to A. oxysepala, but the form of its spurs differentiates it from all other Asian forms of Aquilegia.[27]

Distribution

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Stands of Aquilegia sibirica in Ergaki Nature Park, Russia

The 70 to 80 Aquilegia species are distributed in the Circumboreal Region, ranging between Eurasia and North America.[6] Aquilegia sibirica is native to the north-central Asian regions of Siberia, northern Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Xinjiang.[1] When considered alongside the distribution of the closely related and similarly lowland species A. vulgaris, A. sibirica's current distribution suggests the possibility of a historical vegetation system that linked Central Europe with Siberia.[16] The population in Middle Siberia is considered a quaternary relict (a population that once possessed a broader range in an earlier geologic epoch).[28]

In open portions of the taiga in the Siberian Sayansky District, Siberian columbines and other vascular plants were found in 1921 to form a dense, two-meter-tall vegetation that can obscure the view of people traversing through these areas.[29] A. sibirica has also been found in the herb layer of the peatlands along Lake Baikal's eastern coast.[30] It generally is found in lower elevation habitats while Aquilegia glandulosa occupies higher areas in roughly the same regions.[24]

Cultivation

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Siberian columbine is cultivated in gardens globally.[24] The flower was introduced to the United States by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1933; these seeds were presented to the United States by A. P. Iljinski, the chief botanist of the Botanic Garden, Leningrad, on behalf of the Soviet Union.[3][note 4] Finnish research has suggested that A. sibirica is among the Siberian and Far Eastern plants that could prove valuable for northern landscaping.[31]

Notes

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  1. ^ Other pollinators are more prevalent among other Aquilegia species, such as hummingbirds for A. formosa and hawk moths for A. chrysantha.[5]
  2. ^ Historically, A. flabellata was considered a blue variety of the Siberian columbine with the homotypic synonyms Aquilegia sibirica var. flatbellata and Aquilegia sibirica var. japonica.[18][20][21]
  3. ^ As distinct from Semiaquilegia, a genus in the Ranunculaceae family that resemble Aquilegia but are spurless.[26]
  4. ^ The A. sibirica seeds were given alongside seeds for other plant species, including 12 additional species of Aquilegia.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Aquilegia sibirica Lam". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  2. ^ Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press. 5 February 2013. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-12-384720-1. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Inventory No. 115: Plant Material Introduced by the Division of Plant Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry, April 1 to June 30, 1933 (No. 102378–103406). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture. July 1935. p. 44. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  4. ^ a b Ballerini, Evangeline S.; Min, Ya; Edwards, Molly B.; Kramer, Elena M.; Hodges, Scott A. (8 September 2020). "POPOVICH, encoding a C2H2 zinc-finger transcription factor, plays a central role in the development of a key innovation, floral nectar spurs, in Aquilegia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117 (36). National Academy of Sciences: 22552–22560. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11722552B. doi:10.1073/pnas.2006912117. JSTOR 26969162. PMC 7486772. PMID 32848061.
  5. ^ a b c Ballerini, E. S.; Kramer, E. M.; Hodges, S. A. (22 August 2019). "Comparative transcriptomics of early petal development across four diverse species of Aquilegia reveal few genes consistently associated with nectar spur development". BMC Genomics. 20 (1).
  6. ^ a b Gracie, Carol (2012). Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 36–40. ISBN 978-0-691-19953-5.
  7. ^ a b "Aquilegia sibirica". Plant Lust. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Columbines". University of Saskatchewan. 2 May 2021. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  9. ^ "Aquilegia sibirica". Alpine Garden Society Plant Encyclopedia. Alpine Garden Society. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Hardy Exotic Plants Suitable for the Gardens of Missouri and Adjoining States". Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin. IX (7). Missouri Botanical Garden: 91. September 1921.
  11. ^ "Aquilegia sibirica Lam". Virtual Guide to the Flora of Mongolia. University of Greifswald. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  12. ^ a b Giordani, Cristiano; Simonetti, Giovanna; Natsagdorj, Damdinsuren; Choijamts, Gotov; Ghirga, Francesca; Calcaterra, Andrea; Quaglio, Deborah; De Angelis, Giulia; Toniolo, Chiara; Pasqua, Gabriella (2020). "Antifungal activity of Mongolian medicinal plant extracts". Natural Product Research. 34 (4). Taylor & Francis: 449–455. doi:10.1080/14786419.2019.1610960. PMID 31135192. S2CID 167220925. Archived from the original on 13 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Aquilegia sibirica". International Plant Names Index. Archived from the original on 11 May 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  14. ^ Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de; Poiret, Jean Louis Marie (1783). Encyclopédie Méthodique: Botanique (in French and Latin). Vol. 1. Paris: Panckoucke. p. 150. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  15. ^ "Aquilegia vulgaris var. sibirica". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  16. ^ a b Fior, Simone; Li, Mingai; Oxelman, Bengt; Viola, Roberto; Hodges, Scott A.; Ometto, Lino; Varotto, Claudio (5 February 2013). "Spatiotemporal reconstruction of the Aquilegia rapid radiation through next-generation sequencing of rapidly evolving cpDNA regions". New Phytologist. 198 (2). Wiley-Blackwell: 325–633. doi:10.1111/nph.12163. PMID 23379348.
  17. ^ Brühl, P. (1892). "De Ranunculaceis Indicis Disputationes". The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (in Latin) (3). Asiatic Society of Bengal: 319.
  18. ^ a b Takeda, H. (1913). The Vegetation of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge Botany School. p. 15.
  19. ^ Taylor, Ronald J. (1967). "Interspecific Hybridization and Its Evolutionary Significance in the Genus Aquilegia". Brittonia. 19 (4): 375.
  20. ^ "Aquilegia sibirica var. flabellata (Siebold & Zucc.) Finet & Gagnep". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  21. ^ "Aquilegia flabellata". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  22. ^ "Aquilegia × gubanovii Kamelin". International Plant Names Index. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  23. ^ Levin, Donald A. (2013). "The timetable for allopolyploidy in flowering plants". Annals of Botany. 112 (7): 1202. doi:10.1093/aob/mct194. JSTOR 42801588. PMC 3806526. PMID 23965616.
  24. ^ a b c Nold, Robert (2003). Columbines: Aquilegia, Paraquilegia, and Semiaquilegia (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Press. pp. 34, 92, 118. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  25. ^ Ballerini, Evangeline S.; Min, Ya; Edwards, Molly B.; Kramer, Elena M.; Hodges, Scott A. (September 8, 2020). "POPOVICH, encoding a C2H2 zinc-finger transcription factor, plays a central role in the development of a key innovation, floral nectar spurs, in Aquilegia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117 (36): 22552–22553. JSTOR 26969162.
  26. ^ Mabberley, D. J. (1997) [1987]. The Plant-Book: A Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 656. ISBN 978-0-521-41421-0.
  27. ^ Erst, A. S.; Shaulo, D. N.; Kuznetzov, A. A. (2013). "Aquilegia daingolica (Ranunculaceae) – новый вид из Монголии" [Aquilegia daingolica (Ranunculaceae), a new species from Mongolia]. Систематические заметки по материалам гербария имени П.Н. Крылова Томского государственного университета (in Russian). 108: 14–22. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  28. ^ Ziman, Svetlana N.; Keener, Carl S. (1989). "A Geographical Analysis of the Family Ranunculaceae". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 76 (4). Missouri Botanical Garden: 1021. doi:10.2307/2399690. JSTOR 2399690. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  29. ^ Printz, Henrik (1921). The Vegetation of the Siberian-Mongolian Frontiers (The Sayansk Region). Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. p. 50.
  30. ^ Brianskaia, Elena; Schmieder, Klaus; Boecker, Reinhard; Tubanova, Dolgor; Gyninova, Ayur (October 2021). "Syntaxonomy of peatland vegetation: case study of the central zone of Lake Baikal eastern coast". Plant Biosystems. 155 (5): 1001–1012. doi:10.1080/11263504.2020.1810814.
  31. ^ "Hardy plants for landscaping and restoration in northern Finland". Environment, Local Society and Sustainable Tourism (PDF). Artic Centre Reports. Vol. 50. University of Lapland. 2007. p. 63. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
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