Aquilegia einseleana F. W. Schultz, syn.: Aquilegia pyrenaica var. einseleana (F. W. Schultz) Fiori, Aquilegia vulgaris var. einseleana (F. W. Schultz) Brhl, Aquilegia bauhini Schott, Aquilegia thalictrifolia Schott & Kotschy, Aquilegia vestinae Pfenn. & D. M. MoserFamily: Ranunculaceae Juss.EN: Einsele's Columbine, DE: Dolomiten Akelei, Einsele-Akelei, Kleinblten-AkeleiSlo.: Einselejeva orlicaDat.: July 3. 2020Lat.: 46.36136 Long.: 13.691614 (WGS84)Code: Bot_1316/2020_DSC04576Habitat: Steep mountain ravine, southeast aspect; stony, calcareous ground; open, sunny, relatively warm place; elevation 850 m (2.790 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 6 - 8 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil among stones and rocks.Place: Lower Trenta valley between villages Soa and Trenta; Skokar's ravine, below mountain ridge from Mt. Bavki grintavec to Mt. Srebrnjak; East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC.Comment: Aquilegia einseleana is a beautiful, endemic, Alpine species of a very attractive genus columbine (Aquilegia). In nature (many, also beautiful, cultivars of this genus exist on the horticultural market) it can be admired only in Slovenian Alps, on a few places in Austria, in northeast Italy, in the south most alpine region in Germany and in a tiny (0.2%) portion of Switzerland in Tessin. It grows in two strictly divided narrow, running in west-east direction, belts: in the most south-eastern calcareous Alps and in a small disjunct location in the most northern calcareous Alps and nowhere else. The plants are smaller and more gracious than other species of this genus growing in Slovenia, but with relatively large, intensive violet blue, beautifully shaped flowers and rounded leaf segments of bluish green color. The plant is rare to very rare in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, however, in Trenta valley it is quite common and by far the most common of all Aquilegia species growing here.Ref.:(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 266.(2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 148. (3) W. Langer, H. Sauerbier, Endemishe Pflanzen der Alpen (I), IHW-Verlag (1997), ISBN 3-930167-22-0, p 24.(3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 186.(4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 142.
