Delphinium drepanocentrum (Bruehl ex Huth) Munz in J. Arn. Arb. 49: 94, f. 13L. 1968. D. altissimum Wallich var. drepanocentrum Bruehl exHuth in Bot. Jahrb. 20: 419. 1895. D. altissimum Wallich subsp. drepanocentrun (Bruehl ex Huth) Bruehl & King in Ann. R. Bot. Gard. Calc. 5: 101. 1896. D. umbrosum Hand.-Mazz. subsp. drepanocentrum (Bruehl) Chowdhury ex Mukerjee in Bull. Bot. Surv. India 2: 295. 1961.

Perennial herbs, woody at base; stems up to 60 cm high, simple, pubescent with deflexed yellowish or brownish hairs. Basal leaves absent at anthesis; cauline leaves with 5 - 20 cm long soft-hairy petioles; lamina somewhat pentagonal with a deep sinus at base, 3 - 5-lobed up to 1 - 2 cm from base, rather long hairy above and on nerves· beneath, gradually reduced upwards, becoming trifoliolate 2 - 3 cm long bracts in inflorescence; lobes broad rhombic, cuneate at base, further shallowly divided into 3 lobules. Inflorescence racemose, up to 30 cm long, 5 - 20 flowered, more or less retrorse-hairy and glandular; upper bracts linear to lanceolate, 1 - 2 cm long; pedicels erect, 1 - 4 cm long; bracteoles linear, subulate, 7 - 8 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, subtending the flower. Sepals mauve to dull purple, coarsely appressed hairy; upper sepal ovate, 12 - 15 x 8 - 10 mm, obtuse; spur 20 - 25 mm long, ca 2.5 mm wide at base, narrowed to apex, downwardly curved into a half-circle or merely decurved-spreading; lower sepals oblong-elliptic, 10 - 11 mm long, ca 5 mm wide, rounded at tip. Petals bluish; upper petal slightly oblique, ca 9 x 2.5 mm, glabrous, pointed; spur slender, ca 20 mm long; lower lamina oblong, 6 - 7 x 3 - 4 mm, bifid for about 4 mm into 2 linear-lanceolate lobes, bearded at tips; the claw ca 5 mm long. Stamens ca 5 mm long, glabrous; anthers dark, ca 1 mm long. Follicles 3, 15 - 18 mm long, ca 3 mm wide, somewhat hairy; seeds obovoid, angled, scarcely 1 mm long with transverse rows of brownish scales.

Fl. & Fr. July - Aug.

Distrib. India: Alpine open and bushy slopes, 3500 - 5000 m. Sikkim.

Nepal and Bhutan.