I saved some seeds a few months ago from a Columbine that showed up a year or two after I tried to start some. Those pods were very cooperative: as far as I can tell, they didn't drop any seeds even after they were dry and rattling.
And those pods were pretty easy to get lots of seed from, I just shook them hard inside a big plastic tub. I didn't get ALL the seeds out, but did get plenty of seeds, with very little fine chaff.
It's probably from a traded seed, Burpee C"olumbine, Harlequin, Mixed Colors", no binomial name. (It MIGHT have been from Botanical Interests 2010 year-end sale, "Columbine McKana Giants Blend' Aquilegea hybrida, AAS Selection 1955. My bloom form was not close to either one! Small, nodding blooms, dusky chocolate-purple.
At first I didn't know where it COULD have come from, because the proper plant marker had been buried during some weeding. The Botanical Interest Horticulturalist said that iot LOOKED like A. vulgaris, and MIGHT have been a recombinant or revertant from their stabilzed (OP) hybrid. But the color looks more like some of the NOID Burpee product, and have some typical plantss from the B.I. McKana's giants - very different colors.
My lesson is to make maps of what I plant where, because even a "failed crop" of perennials can surprise you later.
