Aha.
For a while, over the years, I’d see them in only one colour at a time, and would conjecture that they are all related since the shapes were all similar (out hiking on trails, the wild varieties – not these). See an earlier post on this here where the conjecture was confirmed by a bit of research with helpful discussion and links from some readers.
Now I found a cluster of them all together in an Aspen garden that I just happened to be walking by. So, columbines in three shades below for you (Click for larger views):
-cvj
We called these “shooting stars” when I was a kid. Now that I live in CO, how can I not love them? The two-toned ones are my favorites.
We have a sucky state bird (the lark bunting doesn’t even make it to the western slope, so how can it be a “state” bird?) but our state flower is pretty cool, especially the purple ones.