Aquilegia jonesii or A. saximontana ?

[PaulM]

Hello ! Can anyone tell me if this is A. jonesii or A. saximontana...or something else ?

[David Nicholson]

I can only give an answer from the information USA based friends have given me (mine never turn out to be A. saximontan  ,always A. flabellata). One of the ways of recognising A. saximontana is by spurs that are hooked at the ends (turned up). Lori or McMark will tell you for sure.

[ChrisB]

In the second picture it does look as if the spurs have the hooks indicating saximontana, but Lori is the one with the key to check it.  Mine isn't hooked enough to qualify, so it's a hybrid of some sort.

[Lori S.]

I'd say it's absolutely not A. saximontana (other than possibly a distant hybrid)... not that I'm any expert but this much I can tell from reading the info posted by Mark and Panayoti at the NARGS site:
https://www.nargs.org/forum/north-american-columbines-starting-aquilegia-saximontana

From that info, A. saximontana has short, divergent spurs - they spread apart from the base of the flower - that are not particularly hooked (compared to the usual imposter, A. flabellata and hybrids thereof, which has strongly hooked, curling-in spurs).

Again, no expert here, but I don't think it's Aquilegia jonesii either, again, from the strongly hooked spurs, compared to the photos shown in the same thread linked above.  A. jonesii appears to have short, somewhat divergent straight-ish spurs with a bit of a knob on the ends.  Can't tell the scale from the photo - the leaves should be miniscule, and ruffled.  (I only have 2-3 year old seedlings that are supposed to be A. jonesii - no blooms yet, if ever - but I'm amazed at how tiny the leaves are).

So, some hybrid at best, I'd venture.    Anyway, hopefully someone who knows a lot more about it will comment shortly!

[ChrisB]

Thanks Lori for keeping us straight....

[PaulM]

Thank you all for your generous contributions. Well, I guess I can at least rule out A. jonesii.
Maybe A. pyrenaica or A. flabellata, or some hybrid.
Here is a picture with a better view of the spurs.