dwarf larkspur, rock larkspur
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buttercup family, crowfoot family
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Herbs, sometimes woody or herbaceous climbers or low shrubs, perennial or annual, often rhizomatous. |
20-60 cm; base often reddish, nearly glabrous. |
unarmed. |
blade round, 2-8 × 4-12 cm, nearly glabrous; ultimate lobes 3-18, 5 or more extending more than 3/5 distance to petiole, width 2-10 mm (basal), 4-10 mm (cauline), widest at middle or in proximal 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. |
5-15(-30)-flowered, less than 3 times longer than wide; pedicel 1-2.5 cm, puberulent; bracteoles 1-4(-6) mm from flowers, green, linear, 3-5 mm, puberulent. |
terminal or axillary, racemes, cymes, umbels, panicles, or spikes, or flowers solitary, flowers pedicellate or sessile. |
sepals deep bluish purple to pink or white, puberulent, lateral sepals spreading, 11-19 × 4-7 mm, spurs straight, within 30° of horizontal, 13-16 mm; lower petal blades ± covering stamens, blue, except sometimes in white-flowered plants, 6-10 mm, clefts 0.5-2 mm; hairs sparse, mostly centered near junction of blade and claw, white. |
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. |
14-22 mm, 4-4.5 times longer than wide, nearly glabrous. |
achenes, follicles, or rarely utricles, capsules, or berries, often aggregated into globose to cylindric heads. |
unwinged; surface of each seed coat cell with 1-5 small, swollen, elongate, blunt, hairlike structures, barely visible at 20x, otherwise smooth. |
1-many per ovary, never stalked, not arillate; endosperm abundant; embryo usually small. |
= 16. |
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Flowering spring. |
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Slopes in deciduous forests, thicket edges, moist prairies |
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10-1500 m (0-4900 ft) |
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AL; AR; DC; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MO; MS; NC; NE; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
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Worldwide |
Delphinium tricorne is the most commonly encountered larkspur east of the Great Plains. The Cherokee prepared infusions of Delphinium tricorne to ingest for heart problems, although they believed the roots of the plant made cows drunk and killed them (D. E. Moerman 1986). (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.) |
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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 |
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FNA vol. 3. |
FNA vol. 3, p. 85. Authors: Alan T. Whittemore, Bruce D. Parfitt. |
Ranunculaceae > Delphinium > sect. Diedropetala > subsect. Grumosa |
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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. 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. trolliifolium, D. uliginosum, D. umbraculorum, D. variegatum, D. viridescens, D. wootonii, D. xantholeucum |
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Aconitum, Actaea, Adonis, Anemone, Aquilegia, Caltha, Cimicifuga, Clematis, Consolida, Coptis, Delphinium, Enemion, Eranthis, Helleborus, Hydrastis, Myosurus, Nigella, Ranunculus, Thalictrum, T. thalictroides, Trautvetteria, Trollius, Xanthorhiza |
Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer., 314. (1803) |
Jussieu |
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