Delphinium

delphinium: see larkspur.

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larkspur

 or delphinium

Dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne)

(credit: Louise K. Broman from Root Resources—EB Inc.)

Any of about 300 species of herbaceous plants that make up the genus Delphinium in the buttercup family, many of which are grown for their showy flower stalks. Annual larkspurs (sometimes separated as the genus Consolida) include the common rocket larkspur (D. ajacis, or C. ambigua) and its varieties, up to 2 ft (60 cm) tall, with bright blue, pink, or white flowers on branching stalks. Perennial larkspurs, often with blue flowers, include species that grow to 4.5 ft (1.4 m).

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delphinium

any ranunculaceous plant of the genus Delphinium: many varieties are cultivated as garden plants for their spikes of blue, pink, or white spurred flowers

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Delphinium 

(also larkspur), a genus of plants of the family Ranunculaceae. The annual species of Delphinium are often assigned to the genus Consolida. The leaves are divided palmately. The flowers—disposed in racemes or panicles—are irregular, large, and mainly dark blue, light blue or violet. The perianth is formed by five petaloid leaflets, and the superior leaflet has a spur. The fruit consists of one or three to five follicles. There are about 300 species in the northern hemisphere and in the mountains of tropical Africa and about 100 species in the USSR, found primarily in the Caucasus and in Middle Asia. The most common species are the annual branching larkspur (D. consolida), a nectarous weed that yields a dark blue color used in dyeing wool, and the perennial bee larkspur (D. elatum) that grows in forests, shrub thickets, and meadows and contains delphinine, elatine, and other alkaloids used in medicine. Both species are effective insecticides. Many species of Delphinium are cultivated as ornamental flowers.