Home | Start key | Fact sheets | Glossary | Common flowers | ||
Consolida GrayRanunculaceae |
||||||
Alternate trade names
larkspur, Delphinium Consolida (larkspur) is sometimes included in the genus Delphinium in the trade, but it is considered a separate genus botanically. Common names
larkspur Species cultivated
Consolida ambigua (L.) P.W. Ball & Hey. (=C. ajacis auct; Delphinium ajacis auct.) C. orientalis (Gay) Schrödinger C. regalis S.F. Gray (=Delphinium consolida L.1). Origin
Mediterranean region. Brief characterization
Leaves sessile, palmately deeply dissected and further dissected into narrow, filiform segments; spikelike racemes of spurred, zygomorphic flowers; petaloid calyx of 5 sepals ca. 1.5 cm long, one of which is elongated into a spur ca. 1.5-2.5 cm long; corolla small, forming the central "bee", of 2 upper petals united into 1 entire to 3-5-lobed petal, its spur projecting into sepal spur; stamens many. Cultivar and/or species variation
Racemes dense to looser; flowers in numerous colors, sometimes with sepal edges picotee, in both single and double forms; doubles have more than the usual number of sepals rather than petals. May be confused with
Delphinium differs from Consolida in having leaves shallowly to deeply dissected, with broad to narrow, but not filiform, lobes, and flowers with 4 petals in 2 unequal pairs, lower pair sometimes bearded. Countries exporting
Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe. |
Photo: © California Cut Flower Commission |
Photo: © California Cut Flower Commission |
Photo: © K. Sahin, Zaden B.V.
|