Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Delphinium gracilentum

Ranunculaceae

Greene's larkspur, meadow larkspur, pine forest larkspur, slender or Greene's larkspur

buttercup family, crowfoot family
Habit Herbs, sometimes woody or herbaceous climbers or low shrubs, perennial or annual, often rhizomatous.
Stems

(15-)30-50(-80) cm;

base reddish, nearly glabrous.

unarmed.
Leaves

blade round to pentagonal, 1.5-4 × 3-7 cm, nearly glabrous; ultimate lobes 3-7, distinctly wedge-shaped, usually 5 or fewer extending 3/5 distance to petiole, width 5-20 mm (basal), 1-15 mm (cauline), widest in distal 1/2.

blade undivided or more commonly divided or compound, base cordate, sometimes truncate or cuneate, margins entire, toothed, or incised;

venation pinnate or palmate.
Inflorescences

5-20(-38)-flowered;

pedicel spreading from rachis at nearly 90°, 1-3(-4) cm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent;

bracteoles (7-)11-19 mm from flowers, blue or green, linear, 2-5 mm, puberulent to glabrous.

terminal or axillary, racemes, cymes, umbels, panicles, or spikes, or flowers solitary, flowers pedicellate or sessile.
Flowers

sepals dark bluish purple to pink or white, usually retaining color upon drying, glabrous, lateral sepals reflexed, 6-10(-13) × 3-6 mm, spurs often curved upward, within 30° above or below horizontal, 8-12(-14) mm;

lower petal blades elevated, exposing stamens, 3-5 mm, clefts 1-3 mm;

hairs almost exclusively near base of cleft, centered or mostly on inner lobes, usually yellow.

bisexual, sometimes unisexual, inconspicuous or showy, radially or bilaterally symmetric;

sepaloid bracteoles absent;

perianth hypogynous;

sepals usually imbricate, 3-6(-20), distinct, often petaloid and colored, occasionally spurred;

petals 0-26, distinct (connate in Consolida), plane, cup-shaped, funnel-shaped, or spurred, conspicuous or greatly reduced;

nectary usually present, rarely absent;

stamens 5-many, distinct;

anthers dehiscing longitudinally;

staminodes absent (except in Aquilegia and Clematis);

pistils 1-many;

styles present or absent, often persistent in fruit as beak.
Fruits

8-16 mm, 3-3.5 times longer than wide, glabrous to glandular-puberulent.

achenes, follicles, or rarely utricles, capsules, or berries, often aggregated into globose to cylindric heads.
Seeds

unwinged;

seed coats ± pitted, cell surfaces roughened.

1-many per ovary, never stalked, not arillate;

endosperm abundant;

embryo usually small.

Delphinium gracilentum

Ranunculaceae
Phenology Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Open coniferous forest
Elevation 150-2700 m (500-8900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Worldwide
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Delphinium gracilentum hybridizes with D. patens subsp. patens in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills and is very similar to that species, making hybrids difficult to discern. While D. gracilentum and D. patens are easily distinguished in most of their ranges, morphologic distinctions between the two taxa are blurred in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills region, particularly in Butte County, California. Coniferous woods are preferred by D. gracilentum; D. patens subspp. patens and hepaticoideum are more often found in broadleaf woods. The former species has more widely spreading pedicels than the latter, and D. gracilentum usually has wider leaf lobes than D. patens subsp. patens. In the southern Sierra Nevada, D. gracilentum may come in contact with D. patens subsp. montanum. Though hybrids are not common, some gene flow has apparently occurred.

Sepal color phases are not stable and considerable variation occurs within populations. The type specimen of Delphinium gracilentum represents the northern, lower elevation, nonglandular, dark-flowered phase. The type specimen of D. gracilentum forma versicolor Ewan differs only by its pink or white flowers. A limited range of intermediate colors occurs, and populations may be made up of plants of a single color or several different colors. The type specimen of D. greenei Eastwood represents the southern, higher elevation, glandular (at least on pedicels) expression. The type specimen includes representatives of dark- and light-flowered individuals of this phase. The type specimen of D. gracilentum forma versicolor (not seen by the author) is the "albino" phase referred to by Greene in his description of D. gracilentum. Several of the paratypes cited by Ewan have been seen, as have a number of individuals in natural populations.

Delphinium gracilentum has been confused with D. patens or D. nuttallianum. Delphinium gracilentum may be distinguished from D. nuttallianum by its wider leaf lobes, smaller fruits, and more elongate inflorescences, and from D. patens by its wider leaf lobes, more open inflorescences, and usually shorter fruits.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera ca. 60, species 1700 (22 genera, 284 species in the flora).

The flowers of many species of Ranunculaceae begin to open long before anthesis, while the floral organs are just partly expanded. Only mature flowers with open anthers should be used for determination of diagnostic characteristics (especially measurements).

The literature is inconsistent about the term for the whorl of organs between sepals and stamens; these may be conspicuous and petaloid, or reduced to stalked nectaries, or intermediate between the two states. They have been called petals, honey-leaves, or (when they are inconspicuous) staminodes or nectaries. We follow M. Tamura (1993) and treat as petals all organs between the sepals and stamens, except in Clematis and Aquilegia where they usually bear rudimentary anthers and clearly represent staminodes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Flowers bilaterally symmetric; sepals showy; petals smaller than sepals.
→ 2
1. Flowers radially symmetric; sepals showy or not; petals present or absent, smaller to larger than sepals.
→ 4
2. Upper (adaxial) sepal (hood) saccate or helmet-shaped; petals completely hidden by sepals.
Aconitum
2. Upper (adaxial) sepal spurred; petals at least partly exserted from calyx.
→ 3
3. Perennials; pistils 3(-5); petals 4, distinct.
Delphinium
3. Annuals; pistil 1; petals 2, connate.
Consolida
4. Fruits achenes or utricles; ovule 1 per pistil.
→ 5
4. Fruits follicles, capsules, or berries; ovules 2 or more per pistil (1 of 2 aborting in Xanthorhiza, leaving 1 seed at maturity).
→ 12
5. Sepals spurred; leaves all basal, blade linear or narrowly oblanceolate.
Myosurus
5. Sepals plane; leaves either not all basal, or blade not linear or narrowly oblanceolate.
→ 6
6. Leaves all cauline and opposite; stems ±woody, at least at base.
Clematis
6. Leaves cauline and alternate (rarely opposite), or basal, or plants with basal leaves and opposite or whorled involucral bracts; stems herbaceous.
→ 7
7. Plants with 1 or more pairs (opposite) or whorls of involucral bracts, these leaflike or calyxlike.
→ 8
7. Plants without involucral bracts (inconspicuous, linear-lanceolate involucral bracts in Trautvetteria), cauline leaves if present alternate (rarely a pair of opposite, unlobed leaves in Ranunculus sect. Flammula).
→ 9
8. Achenes with conspicuous veins or ribs on lateral surfaces; style absent.
T. thalictroides
8. Achenes without veins on lateral surfaces; style present.
Anemone
9. Petals absent; inflorescences panicles, racemes, or corymbs (umbels in Thalictrum thalictroides); filaments filiform or dilated distally.
→ 10
9. Petals present (rarely absent in Ranunculus pedatifidus); inflorescences simple or compound cymes or flowers solitary; filaments filiform.
→ 11
10. Leaves simple, blade lobed; flowers bisexual; inflorescences corymbs.
Trautvetteria
10. Leaves compound; flowers unisexual or bisexual; inflorescences panicles, racemes, corymbs, or umbels.
Thalictrum
11. Petals without nectaries; sepals 5(-8).
Adonis
11. Petals with basal nectaries; sepals 3-5(-6).
Ranunculus
12. Leaves dissected into linear, threadlike segments; pistils compound; fruits capsules.
Nigella
12. Leaves not dissected, if parted or compound the segments not linear; pistils simple; fruits aggregates of follicles or solitary or aggregate berries.
→ 13
13. Shrubs; beak of follicle lateral, strongly incurved against abaxial surface of follicle.
Xanthorhiza
13. Herbs; beak of follicle, if present, terminal or nearly so, straight or slightly curved, sometimes hooked at tip.
→ 14
14. Petals prominent, spurred.
Aquilegia
14. Petals if present inconspicuous, plane or funnel-shaped.
→ 15
15. Flowers 12-50, in racemes or racemelike panicles.
→ 16
15. Flowers 1-10, in leafy cymes or solitary.
→ 17
16. Pistils 1-8; fruits follicles, usually aggregate; petals 2-cleft or absent.
Cimicifuga
16. Pistil 1; fruits berries; petals unlobed.
Actaea
17. Leaves simple, blade often lobed 1/2-3/4 its length, margins entire, crenate, or toothed; petals absent.
→ 18
17. Leaves compound or divided to base; petals usually inconspicuous (absent in Enemion).
→ 19
18. Leaf blades unlobed, margins entire, dentate, or crenate; fruits follicles.
Caltha
18. Leaf blades lobed, margins serrate; fruits berries.
Hydrastis
19. Leaves ternately 1-2× compound.
→ 20
19. Leaves palmately or pedately compound or divided.
→ 21
20. Leaves all basal; leaf blade deeply divided, ternately or pinnately 1-2× compound; petals present.
Coptis
20. Leaves basal and cauline; leaf blade ternately 2× compound; petals absent.
Enemion
21. Leaf segments lobed, margins sharply toothed; sepals persistent in fruit.
Helleborus
21. Leaf segments cleft or parted, margins entire or toothed; sepals not persistent in fruit.
→ 22
22. Cauline leaves absent except for whorl of 3 involucral bracts immediately subtending flower; follicles stipitate.
Eranthis
22. Cauline leaves alternate, (0.8-)1 cm or more from flower, involucral whorl absent; follicles sessile.
Trollius
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3, p. 85. Authors: Alan T. Whittemore, Bruce D. Parfitt.
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae > Delphinium > sect. Diedropetala > subsect. Grumosa
Sibling taxa
D. alabamicum, D. alpestre, D. andersonii, D. andesicola, D. antoninum, D. bakeri, D. barbeyi, D. basalticum, D. bicolor, D. brachycentrum, D. californicum, D. cardinale, D. carolinianum, D. decorum, D. depauperatum, D. distichum, D. elatum, D. exaltatum, D. geraniifolium, D. geyeri, D. glareosum, D. glaucescens, D. glaucum, D. gypsophilum, D. hansenii, D. hesperium, D. hutchinsoniae, D. inopinum, D. lineapetalum, D. luteum, D. madrense, D. menziesii, D. multiplex, D. newtonianum, D. novomexicanum, D. nudicaule, D. nuttallianum, D. nuttallii, D. parishii, D. parryi, D. patens, D. polycladon, D. purpusii, D. ramosum, D. recurvatum, D. robustum, D. sapellonis, D. scaposum, D. scopulorum, D. stachydeum, D. sutherlandii, D. treleasei, D. tricorne, D. trolliifolium, D. uliginosum, D. umbraculorum, D. variegatum, D. viridescens, D. wootonii, D. xantholeucum
Subordinate taxa
Aconitum, Actaea, Adonis, Anemone, Aquilegia, Caltha, Cimicifuga, Clematis, Consolida, Coptis, Delphinium, Enemion, Eranthis, Helleborus, Hydrastis, Myosurus, Nigella, Ranunculus, Thalictrum, T. thalictroides, Trautvetteria, Trollius, Xanthorhiza
Synonyms D. patens subsp. greenei, D. pratense
Name authority Greene: Pittonia 3: 15. (1896) Jussieu
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers