Laramie Columbine
Laramie Columbine is smaller and less theatrical than many garden columbines. Pale flowers, short spurs, divided leaves, limestone crevices, and the restricted Laramie Range together support identification; any single trait is insufficient.
Artwork inspired by Hans Kleiber
Laramie Columbine grows nowhere outside the Laramie Mountains of Albany and Converse counties. Wyoming Natural Diversity Database work documents about fifty extant occurrences spread across a narrow mountain belt, often in cool, rocky limestone settings where a small plant can disappear into crevices until flowering begins.
From mid-June through July, look for white to cream flowers with unusually short spurs, held above twice-divided leaves. Vegetative plants can resemble meadow-rue, but Laramie Columbine usually occupies rockier, less mesic ground and has crenate leaf lobes with slight hair beneath. Flower, leaf, spur, habitat, and geography should be considered together rather than trusting one trait.
- Range
- Laramie Range endemic
- Habitat
- Limestone crevices
- Bloom
- Short alpine summer
Quick guide
- Identify by
- Look for search cool limestone sites in midsummer.
- Confirm with
- Confirm the sighting against combine pale flowers, short spurs, leaves, and habitat.
Recognize and protect
- Time
- Search cool limestone sites in midsummer.
- Recognize
- Combine pale flowers, short spurs, leaves, and habitat.
- Stay stable
- Avoid trampling or climbing fragile ledges.
- Document gently
- Photograph in place and protect coordinates.
Good to know
Do not risk a fall or crush neighboring plants for a macro photograph. Rare columbines are not garden stock; collecting flowers, seed, or roots is inappropriate and may be illegal.
Notice these
- A small pale columbine with short spurs, delicate divided leaves, and flowers held close to rocky limestone habitat
- cool crevices and ledges in limestone outcrops of the Laramie Range
- Emerges after snowmelt and flowers during the short cool summer before setting seed in rocky crevices.