Corydalis aureaWilld.

scrambled eggs

WFO wfo-0000622065 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Corydalis aurea, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. a Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205959195
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. b Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203730270
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. c Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203405497
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Robbie Hannawacker
fig. d Robbie Hannawacker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197084398
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. e Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189279620
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. f Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187305607
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. g Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186939461
Corydalis aurea, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. h Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184695840

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 37 botanical countries

Regions where Corydalis aurea is native: Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Manitoba, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon AlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoIllinoisKansasManitobaMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahVermontWashingtonWisconsinWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Corydalis aurea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Hampshire NWH
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 684 in flower of 728 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Corydalis aurea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 684 of 728 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 29 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Capnodes aureum (Willd.) Kuntze
  • Capnoides aurea (Willd.) Kuntze
  • Capnoides aurea var. occidentalis Hitchc.
  • Capnoides engelmannii (Fedde) Cockerell
  • Capnoides euchlamydea Wooton & Standl.
  • Capnoides macrorrhiza (Fedde) Cockerell
  • Capnoides montana (Engelm. ex A.Gray) Britton
  • Capnoides montanum (Engelm. ex A.Gray) Britton
  • Capnoides wetherillii (Eastw.) A.Heller
  • Corydalis aurea var. aurea
  • Corydalis aurea var. macrantha Alph.Wood
  • Corydalis aurea var. macrantha WOOD
  • Corydalis aurea var. occidentalis Engelm. ex A.Gray
  • Corydalis aurea var. parviflora Regel
  • Corydalis aurea var. robusta Fedde
  • Corydalis curvisiliqua subsp. occidentalis (Engelm. & A.Gray) W.A.Weber
  • Corydalis engelmannii var. exaltata Fedde
  • Corydalis eucblamydea (Wooton & Standl.) Fedde
  • Corydalis montana Engelm. ex A.Gray
  • Corydalis oregana Fedde
  • Corydalis pachyloba Fedde
  • Corydalis tortisiliqua var. longibracteata Fedde
  • Corydalis wetherillii Eastw.
  • Corydalis wyomingensis var. lativaginata Fedde

and 5 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.