Aquilegia cossoniana is a perennial flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to the Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa.
Description.
"Aquilegia cossoniana" is a perennial herb, closely resembling "Aquilegia viscosa" but with larger leaves and flowers, and 4–5 or more flowering stems.
Taxonomy.
The species was first described as a variety "cossoniana" of the common columbine, "Aquilegia vulgaris", by René Maire and Frère Sennen in 1934. It was later reassessed as a subspecies of "A. vulgaris" by Alain Dobignard and Denis Jordan in 1987, and finally as a species in its own right by Salvador Rivas Martínez in 2011.
Etymology.
The specific epithet "cossoniana" honours the French botanist Ernest Cosson. In their 1934 description of the plant as a variety of "Aquilegia vulgaris", Maire and Sennen noted its similarity to "A. vulgaris" var. "viscosa", as described by Cosson in his work "Compendium florae Atlanticae". They differentiated var. "cossoniana" by its taller stature, larger leaves, much larger flowers, and greater number of flowering stems.
Distribution and habitat.
"Aquilegia cossoniana" is native to northern Morocco and northern Algeria. It was recorded by René Maire and Frère Sennen in their 1934 description as growing in several locations in the Atlas Mountains: in Morocco, on Jbel Tidirhine and near Ketama; and in Algeria in the Djurdjura range, in mountains near Akfadou, and in the Babor Mountains.
Conservation.
, the species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List.