Delphinium brunonianum
Royle, Illus. Bot. Himal. 56. 1834; Hook. f. & Thomson
in Fl. Brit. India 1: 27. 1872. D. moschatum Munro ex Hook. f. & Thomson, Fl. Ind. 53.
1855.
Hindi: Laskar (HP)
Perennial herbs, up to 1 m high, with a musky odour when fresh; rootstock slender; stems erect, simple and glabrous or downy below, somewhat branched and glandular pubescent above, purplish in colour, leafy. Lower petioles up to 15 cm long, sheathed at base, upper shorter; lamina reniform. 3 - 8 cm across, more or less hairy beneath along veins, 5-fid or deeply partite up to middle; lobes always folded in a wedge-shaped manner, never flat, crenate or dentate into ovate subobtuse teeth or short lobes; upper leaves becoming leafy bracts. Inflorescence few-flowered, corymbose or racemose;Pedicels erect, up to 15 cm long; basal bracts 3 - 5-partite; upper ones simple, oblong or linear; bracteoles placed near to the flower, 5 - 15 mm long, hairy, lanceolate or ovate, entire or toothed or trilobed. Sepals royal blue to pale blue, membranous, veiny, persistent, soft pubescent with white hairs; upper sepal round-ovate, obtuse, 20 - 30 mm long and wide; spur almost straight, saccate, 12 - 15 mm long, ca 8 mm wide at base, narrowed to a conical blunt tip; lateral sepals broadly ovate, 25 - 35 mm long, obtuse; lower sepals ovate-orbicular, 2.5 - 3 x 1.8 - 2.2 cm. Petals dark blue or almost black with white apex, with 2 lanceolate lobules at tip; spur 1 - 1.2 mm long; lower petals strongly oblique; the rounded blade 6 - 7 x 4 mm, bearded at base, ciliate; the claw 6 - 7 mm long. Stamens 7 - 8 mm long, strongly expanded, glabrous; anthers ca 1- 2 mm long. Follicles viscidly pubescent, 4 - 5, ca 12 mm long; seeds ca 1 mm long, winged at angles.
Fl. & Fr. Aug. - Sept.
Distrib. India: Alpine W. Himalayas, 3500 - 6000 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China (Tibet).
Notes. Roots used as incense in Gompas of Lahul area (Kapahi in J. Econ. Tax. Bot. 14: 51. 1990).
Perennial herbs, up to 1 m high, with a musky odour when fresh; rootstock slender; stems erect, simple and glabrous or downy below, somewhat branched and glandular pubescent above, purplish in colour, leafy. Lower petioles up to 15 cm long, sheathed at base, upper shorter; lamina reniform. 3 - 8 cm across, more or less hairy beneath along veins, 5-fid or deeply partite up to middle; lobes always folded in a wedge-shaped manner, never flat, crenate or dentate into ovate subobtuse teeth or short lobes; upper leaves becoming leafy bracts. Inflorescence few-flowered, corymbose or racemose;Pedicels erect, up to 15 cm long; basal bracts 3 - 5-partite; upper ones simple, oblong or linear; bracteoles placed near to the flower, 5 - 15 mm long, hairy, lanceolate or ovate, entire or toothed or trilobed. Sepals royal blue to pale blue, membranous, veiny, persistent, soft pubescent with white hairs; upper sepal round-ovate, obtuse, 20 - 30 mm long and wide; spur almost straight, saccate, 12 - 15 mm long, ca 8 mm wide at base, narrowed to a conical blunt tip; lateral sepals broadly ovate, 25 - 35 mm long, obtuse; lower sepals ovate-orbicular, 2.5 - 3 x 1.8 - 2.2 cm. Petals dark blue or almost black with white apex, with 2 lanceolate lobules at tip; spur 1 - 1.2 mm long; lower petals strongly oblique; the rounded blade 6 - 7 x 4 mm, bearded at base, ciliate; the claw 6 - 7 mm long. Stamens 7 - 8 mm long, strongly expanded, glabrous; anthers ca 1- 2 mm long. Follicles viscidly pubescent, 4 - 5, ca 12 mm long; seeds ca 1 mm long, winged at angles.
Fl. & Fr. Aug. - Sept.
Distrib. India: Alpine W. Himalayas, 3500 - 6000 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China (Tibet).
Notes. Roots used as incense in Gompas of Lahul area (Kapahi in J. Econ. Tax. Bot. 14: 51. 1990).
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