Once the columbine has flowered, its fruits appear. At first, the petals fall off the flower. Then, the flower, which has been pointing down, tilts to an upright position. As the fruit develops, it is composed of five small tubes all clustered together, each tipped with a curled filament. Each tube contains many small, dark seeds, which disperse in the wind.
In the summer and fall, a new set of leaves is grown from the base of the plant. Often these have a very obvious little trail on them that is lighter in color. It curls around and over itself in a widening fashion. The leaf gradually gets larger from its beginning to end. Within the trail are also tiny black specks. These trails are created by the larvae of small flies. The egg is laid on the underside of the leaf, and the tiny fly larva bores into the leaf and then eats only between the layers of the leaf. As the larva gets bigger, it makes a larger trail. The li
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