Delphinium patens
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| Delphinium patens | ||||||||||||||
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| Delphinium patens Benth. |
Delphinium patens is a species of larkspur known by the common names zigzag larkspur and spreading larkspur. It is a wildflower found almost exclusively in the state of California. It grows a long, thin stem with leaves restricted to the lower half. It bears inflorescences of small dark blue or deep purple larkspur flowers with petals each less than a centimeter long.
[edit] Description
Plants grow typically 20-50 cm tall are glabrous to puberulent with stems that have reddish bases. Leaves mostly on the bottom 1/3 of stem of the flowering stems and along with 1 to 3 basal leaves at blooming plus 2 to 4 stem leaves. The leaves are rounded to pentagonal shaped with 3 to 9 lobes. Flowers have dark blue colored sepals that are glabrous, the lateral sepals reflexed. The flowers have 4-8 mm straight spurs ascending 30° above horizontal. The flower clefts 1-3 mm long with hairs centered on base of cleft or on the inner lobes, the hairs are scattered, white in color or rarely yellow. Seeds produced in fruits that are 12-23 mm long and 3.3-3.6 times longer than wide, the fruits are glabrous or puberulent. Each blooming stem produces from 4 to 25 flowers, sometimes up to 36. The seeds are unwinged, and most often with pitted seed coats.[1]
There are three subspecies:
- Delphinium patens subsp. hepaticoideum
- Delphinium patens subsp. montanum
- Delphinium patens subsp. patens
Delphinium patens hybridizes freely with a few other species in Delphinium section Grumosa in the wild.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ (1997) Flora of North America Vol 3, Magnoliophyta:Magnoliidae and Hamamelidae. Oxford University Press, pp 238. ISBN 019511246-6.
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