File:Desert columbine, Aquilegia shockleyi (25656902607).jpg

desert columbine, Aquilegia shockleyi, California, White Mountains, Cottonwood Basin, Granite Meadow, Fishlake Valley drainage, elevation 3028 m (9935 ft).

Most specimens of desert columbine that I've seen have appeared awfully transitional to Aquilegia formosa, the much more widespread crimson columbine of moister regions in western North America. These plants, on the other hand, seem to fit Aquilegia shockleyi to a tee, but were found in the most unexpected of habitats -- a powdery alkaline soil patch surrounded by a subalpine meadow at nearly 10000 feet, a new elevation record for the species.

The soil patch didn't look much like a spring deposit, but it was located near the contact between the local Reed Dolomite and the intrusive granite pluton below and to the east. So my guess is that this soil patch is the decayed remnants of a small dolomite pendant, left over as the surroundings eroded to expose the underlying granite. The surrounding meadow hydrology probably helps with soil formation, and keeps it moist enough to support the columbine.

Desert columbine is a regional endemic, found in the southern Great Basin and northern Mojave Desert of Nevada and southeastern California, where it prefers alkaline soil in desert seeps and meadows.