Delphinium candelabrum Ostenf. in Hedin, South. Tibet 6(3): 80. 1922; Munz in J. Arn. Arb. 48: 509, f. 8I. 1967. Grierson & Long, Fl. Bhutan 1(2): 312. 1984.

Perennial low herbs; rootstock slender from a thickened branched elongate root; stem dark, slender, branched or simple, subglabrous or scattered spreading hairy, 5 -15 cm high. Leaves subrosulate from base; lower petioles 2 - 7 cm long, very slender, strigulose, dilated at base; lamina rounded, 1 - 2 cm in diam., palmatisect to base; lobes again divided into linear-oblong 3 - 5 x 1 - 2 mm wide segments, subtruncate and mucronate at apex, long pubescent beneath; cauline leaves 1 to few, remote, the upper reduced to trifoliate bracts. Flowers 3 - 6, subcorymbose; bracts 5 - 10 cm long, simple or compound-Iaciniate; pedicels 4 - 8 cm, arcuate-ascending, slender, somewhat spreading-villous; bracteoles placed near the middle of pedicels, entire and linear, ca 10 x 1 mm, sometimes 3-partite. Sepals blue-purple, often drying brownish, white- or yellow- villous; lamina of upper sepal broadly ovate, 20 - 24 x 18 - 20 mm; spur often slightly upcurved or straight, ca 17 - 20 x 4 - 5 mm; lateral sepals asymmetrically oblong-elliptic, 20 - 25 x 10 - 12 mm; lower sepals ovate-elliptic, rounded apiculate at tip, 22 x 15 mm. Petals dark violet; upper petals straight, 10 - 15 x ca 3 mm, curved and emarginate at apex with a few stiff hairs, rounded or erose at apex; spur ca 17 mm long; lamina of lower petals at right angles to the claw, rounded or broadly elliptic, 6 - 8 x 4 - 6 mm, shallowly bifid at apex, sparsely pubescent, short-bearded at lower half; claw ca 6 mm long. Stamens glabrous, ca 7 mm long; anthers ca 1 mm long, dark. Carpels 3, hairy.

Fl. & Fr. Aug. - Oct.

Distrib. India: Alpine slopes, 4500 - 5200 m. Sikkim.

Bhutan and China (Tibet).