FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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A CLOSER LOOK AT ROYAL LARKSPUR By Bob Young This is the seventeenth of a series of articles describing the flowers pictured in our wildflower brochure. —ed.
Royal Larkspur, Delphinium variegatum, is shown in the brochure “Common Native Wildflowers of Edgewood” published jointly by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve. Just below the four petals of the Larkspur flower is a whorl of five sepals that have the same color as the petals. The peculiar shape of the upper sepal resembles the shape of a dolphin as pictured in decorative art. The genus name Delphinium comes from the Greek word for dolphin. The shape of that sepal also suggests the spur of a bird, hence the reference to the Larkspur. The early Spanish-Californians called it espuela del caballero – the cavalier’s spur. Royal Larkspur is in the Buttercup (Ranunculaceae) Family. It is a perennial, growing from 1-2 feet tall, whose root bakes in the hot, dry grassland all summer, waiting for the cool, wet winter to start its new season’s growth. The color of the Royal Larkspur on Edgewood is usually a deep royal purple. With color variations described in some wildflower books as “…upper petals white or yellowish, often tipped with purple; lower petals violet or rarely white…,” one can see why the specific epithet of this plant is variegatum. It can be found between 65 and 2600 feet elevation, from California’s North Coast to the South Coast Ranges, as well as the Cascade Ranges, the Sierra Nevada foothills, and the Central Valley. On Edgewood, it blooms from March to May in the grasslands. Three other Larkspurs on Edgewood are the Western Larkspur, which blooms a little later than the Royal; the California Larkspur which is three or more feet tall, and the Spreading Larkspur, the latter two blooming on shady, moist slopes. |
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