this too is columbine

i have photographed columbine flowers several times–their spurred petals ever a fascination. but these not-quite-dried stems are also columbine. i snatched these from my neighbors garden. i’m not sure i would have even recognized them as columbine except for the one small flower still in bloom.  after ten years of doing STILL, i have gotten pretty good at identifying the native flowers and weeds and my bioregion when they are in their peak. but identifying them in their off-seasons, especially winter, is still difficult for me. plant identification apps like “seek” are already hugely beneficial. i’m impatient for their databases to grow to a point where they can also recognize plants in ALL their various stages. imagine.

columbine flower stems in early autumn (Aquilegia)