Dwarf Larkspur

Delphinium tricorne

Dwarf Larkspur is my favorite flower in Wildwood Park.  For several weeks in the spring it covers much of the eastern slope with flowers in all shades of blue and white.  The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical, which means they have a left side and a right side, which are mirror images of each other, just as people do.  Both the petals and the sepals are colored.  There are five sepals, two oval lower ones, two oval side ones, and an upper one with a long spur that extends backwards behind the flower.  There are four petals, two lower ones that have two lobes and so appear to be four, and two spurred upper petals.  The spurs on the upper petals fit into the spur on the upper sepal.  There is nectar for pollinators deep inside, at the back of the spurred petals.  Bumblebees, which have long tongues, may be seen seeking nectar and pollinating the flowers.  The sepals vary from deep bluish purple to blue to pink to white, and often are of mixed colors.  The petals, as noted above, are also colored, and may be differently colored from the sepals.  All this produces a population with many color variations.

Dwarf larkspur favors hillsides in deciduous forests, thicket edges, and moist prairies.  It can be found from Pennsylvania west to eastern Nebraska and southern Minnesota, south to Oklahoma and Arkansas and east to the Appalachians.  It is the commonest larkspur in eastern North America.  In Wildwood it covers much of the western slope of the park.

Many larkspurs are poisonous to livestock and to people.  The young foliage and the seeds are especially dangerous, and can be fatal if enough are eaten.  The common cultivated larkspur has been used to kill parasitic worms, but only with caution, so that the patient is not also killed.

The genus name Delphinium comes from the Greek name for the flower, Delphinion, which, in turn, comes from the Greek Delphinus, meaning "dolphin."  The reason is not clear, but the most likely connection is that the flowers of some species resemble classical sculptures of dolphins. 

The species name tricorne means "three-horned" and refers to the fruit, a dry capsule which splits into three wide-spreading sections when the seeds are mature.  See the young fruits at right which have not yet dried and split.  The common name larkspur supposedly refers to the spurred flowers which resemble the spurred feet of larks and other birds.

All larkspurs are in the Ranunculaceae, or Buttercup Family.  Many species in Wildwood are in this family, including thimbleweed, rue anemone, leatherflowers and Virgin's bowers, columbines, meadow rues, and, of course, buttercups.

 GGC