Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

ROCKET LARKSPUR

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Consolida ajacis (L. ) Schur

[=Delphinium ajacis L.]

Brown County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 12-40 inches

Family: Ranunculaceae - Buttercup Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Stems:

Erect, glabrous or sparsely and minutely pubescent.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate; petiole present or absent; blade simple, broadly ovate to nearly round in outline, .8 to 2.4 inch long, .6 to 2 inches wide, margins deeply palmately dissected, surfaces glabrous or puberulent.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, 5-50(-80)-flowered, terminal; involucral bracts absent.

Flowers:

Bilaterally symmetric; sepals 5, white, pink, blue, or purple, .4 to .6 inch, upper sepal spurred; petals 2, connate, white, pink, blue, or purple, spurred, spurs enclosed within spur of upper sepal, lobes 1/6 to 1/3 inch; stamens 15-25; pistils 1; style persistent; stigma 1.

Fruits:

Follicles, cylindric, .5 to 1 inch, minutely pubescent; beak terminal, straight, 1/25 to 1/12 inch; seeds dark brown to black, angled.

Habitat:

Roadsides, pastures, disturbed sites

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Origin:

Introduced; escaped and more or less naturalized

Uses:

The Cherokee took an infusion to treat heart ailments.

Comments:

Consolida, to become solid, alluding to the supposed wound-healing abilities and ajacis, for the Greek hero Ajax, alluding to the shield-like marks on the petals.

Rocket larkspur flowers