June EcoQuest - Delightful Delphiniums!
Spring is in full force! One group of plants that are currently popping on the landscape with their colorful, showy flowers are the Delphiniums. Delphiniums are members of the Ranunculaceae, or buttercup family, and as such have distinct carpels or pistils. There are nine species of Delphinium native to Colorado, and three of these can be found currently blooming in the greater metro area – Delphinium geyeri (Geyer’s larkspur), Delphinium nuttallianum (Nuttall’s larkspur), and Delphinium virescens (plains larkspur; also called Delphinium carolinianum ssp. virescens).
The name Delphinium comes from the shape of the flowers in bud – the ancient Greeks thought the shape of the flower bud and spur resembled that of a dolphin, and hence called these plants Delphiniums from the Greek word delphinion for dolphin. Delphiniums are also often referred to as larkspurs because the nectary at the base of the uppermost sepal resembled a lark’s claw. Interestingly, the showy part of the Delphinium flowers are actually the sepals! The petals are small and inconspicuous, hidden within the colorful sepals.
Our Delphinium species are easily identifiable from each other. Delphinium virescens exhibits white flowers with a green spot on the sepals, while the other two species have blue or violet-blue flowers. The other two species can be a little trickier to distinguish between – Delphinium nuttallianum has few leaves on the stem and fewer, violet-blue flowers, while D. geyeri has many stem leaves and many, bright or electric blue flowers.
See if you can locate some Delphiniums and help Denver Botanic Gardens by photographing as many plants as possible in the month of June. Post your findings to iNaturalist so they will automatically be added to the Denver EcoFlora Project.
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