Delphinium cashmerianum Royle, Illus. Bot. Himal. 55. 1834, t. 12. 1833; Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit, India 1: 26. 1872. D. aitchisonii Huth in Bot. Jahrb. 20: 395. 1895; Mukerjee in Bull. Bot. Surv. India 2: 293. 1960.

Perennial herbs, up to 50 cm high; rootstock slender, woody; stems strigosely hairy or subglabrous, simple or branched. Basal leaves with up to 15 cm long petioles dilated at base; lamina reniform, pentagonal, 2 - 10 cm across, somewhat strigulose, palmately 5 - 7-lobed halfway to the base; lobes toothed or lobulate into ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obtuse to acuminate lobules. Inflorescence a few-flowered corymb or panicle; flowers bluish-purple; pedicels slender, 1 - 8 cm long, strigosely hairy; bracteoles linear or setaceous to broadly lanceolate, 5 - 10 mm long, usually placed away from flower. Sepals bluish purple, sometimes pinkish, persistent, pubescent outside, reticulately veined;upper sepal 20 - 30 x 12 - 15 mm, obtuse; spur blue, normally straight, conical, 12 - 15 mm long, 5 - 12 mm wide at base, tapering to a blunt apex; lateral sepals 15 - 25 x 6 - 12. mm, obtuse; lower sepals rhombic-obovate, 15 - 25 x 6 - 16 mm. Petals dark purple to light blue; upper pair slightly oblique; blade ca 13 mm long, glabrous, erose or bidentate along margins; spur 8 - 11 mm long; lower petals oblique, oblong-ovate, long-bearded and ciliate, ca 8 x 5 nun, cleft almost to half-way; claw 7 - 8 mm long. Stamens 6 - 7 mm long, glabrous; anthers ca 1 mm long, dark. Follicles 3 - 7, hairy, 13 - 15 x 4 mm with 2- 3 mm long beak; seeds covered with horizontal row of scales.

Fl. & Fr. Aug. - Sept.

Distrib. India: Alpine and subalpine slopes, shaded places, 2800 - 3800 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Pakistan and China (Tibet).