Delphinium nuttallianum / upland larkspur
- Bright blue flowers, sometimes whitish or other color petals in center
- One or several flowers per stalk
- Long spur “behind” the flower
- Leaves mostly low on the stem – divided into several or many lobes
- Open meadows, near streams, with sagebrush, any elevation
- Beginning soon after snowmelt and sometime persisting into September
Synonyms: Delphinium bicolor, D. decorum, D. nelsonii, D.pauciflorum, D.sonnei
Also known as: common larkspur
This is one of those striking plants that grabs your eye and is pretty hard to overlook, even when it is deep in some other sort of vegetation or under a sagebrush shrub. It seems delicate but is a perennial and not too fussy about where it lives, so it’s always likely to have another chance. On the other hand, it is common enough that its delicate appearance has to be misleading. One thing it doesn’t have to worry about is being eaten… it is highly poisonous. Cattle can die from munching on just a little, making this not one of the cattle-folks favorite plants.
And finally, continuing the poem begun with the Geranium viscossimum description…
There once was a dormouse who lived in a bed
Of delphiniums (blue), and geraniums (red)…
And all the day long, he admired the view
Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue)
Go read the rest at: The Dormouse and the Doctor, A.A. Milne
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