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 nuttallii subsp. nuttallii

(synonym of Delphinium oreganum)

Delphinium californicum

Willamette Valley larkspur

California larkspur, coast larkspur

Stems

40-70 cm.

(60-)100-160(-230) cm;

base reddish, puberulent-glabrous.

Leaves

blade pentagonal to round, 3-9 × 3-12 cm, puberulent; ultimate lobes 3-15, width 5-60 mm;

midcauline leaf lobes less than 3 times longer than wide.

Inflorescences

(16-)40-90(-162)-flowered;

pedicel 0.5-2.5(-6.5) cm, puberulent;

bracteoles 2-5 mm from flowers, reddish, linear, (3-)7-12(-15) mm, puberulent.

Flowers

sepals blue or bluish purple, spurs 10-13 mm;

lower petal blades 4.5-6.5 mm.

sepals lavender to greenish white, abaxially puberulent, lateral sepals forward pointing to form a pseudotube, 6-11 × 5-7 mm, spurs straight, slightly ascending, apically downcurved, 7-11(-14) mm;

lower petal blades elevated, ± exposing stamens, 3-5 mm, clefts 1.5-2.5 mm;

hairs covering adaxial surface, white or light yellow.

Fruits

11-16 mm, 2.5-3.5 times longer than wide, glabrous to sparsely puberulent.

Seeds

unwinged;

seed coat cells elongate, surfaces ± roughened.

= 16.

Delphinium nuttallii subsp. nuttallii

Delphinium californicum

Phenology

Flowering late spring–early summer.

Habitat

Rock outcrops, rocky meadows

Elevation

20-300 m (100-1000 ft)

Distribution

OR; WA

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

Delphinium californicum can be confused only with D. glaucum or D. exaltatum. The three species may be separated by the abundant pubescence and early flowering date of D. californicum as compared to the other two taxa, low elevation sites of D. californicum compared to D. glaucum, and western geographic distribution of D. californicum compared to D. exaltatum.

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

Key

1. Sepals lavender; inflorescences puberulent; upper petals hairy.	subsp. californicum
1. Sepals greenish white; inflorescences nearly glabrous; upper petals glabrous.	subsp. interius

Source

FNA vol. 3.

Parent taxa

Ranunculaceae > Delphinium > sect. Diedropetala > subsect. Grumosa > Delphinium nuttallii

Ranunculaceae > Delphinium > sect. Diedropetala > subsect. Exaltata

Sibling taxa

D. nuttallii subsp. nuttallii, D. nuttallii subsp. ochroleucum

D. alabamicum, D. alpestre, D. andersonii, D. andesicola, D. antoninum, D. bakeri, D. barbeyi, D. basalticum, D. bicolor, D. brachycentrum, 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. gracilentum, 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

D. californicum subsp. californicum, D. californicum subsp. interius

Name authority

unknown

Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 31. (1838)

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).

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora

The species comparison tool is brought to you by: