Columbo

This species is a long-lived perennial monocarp (flowers once and then dies). It is very common near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (9,500 feet elevation, Colorado), where the average height of flowering stalks is about 5 feet, with about 600 flowers. At lower altitudes stalks can reach 9 feet, and in the alpine tundra stalks can be less than a foot. Average age of flowering in an alpine population at 12,300 feet (near Cumberland Pass) is about 50 years. Flowers are visited by many kinds of insects, and hummingbirds, but most pollination is probably accomplished by bumble bees and moths.