One of my favorite spring flowers is the Columbine (genus Aquilegia), whose name comes from the Latin for “dove,” because the inverted flower is said to resemble five doves clustered together. Columbines come in many colors and color combinations and I am always fascinated by the shapes and colors of this unusual-looking flower.
I photographed this beautiful little Columbine on the first day of May at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia, a county-run historical garden that is one of my favorite places for photographing flowers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
So beautiful thank you
That’s a nice shot Mike. The native columbines should be blooming any day now.
Lovely. One of the first wildflowers I ever learned to identify many years ago….I even love their name.
Thanks. I am definitely challenged when it comes to identifying flowers, but this one is distinctive enough for me to distinguish it (and I too like its name).