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).
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).