Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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Delphinium malabaricum (Huth) Munz in J. Arn. Arb. 49: 106, f. 142:1968; Billore & Singh in Indian For. 98: 407 - 408.1972. D. dasycaulon var.malabaricum Huth in Bot. Jahrb. 20: 435. 1895. D. dasycaulon auct. non Fresen; Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 25. 1872.


Perennial herbs with woody cylindrical rhizome; stems 30 - 100 cm high, slender, glabrous to retrorse pubescent below, pale to bright yellowish strigose in inflorescence, simple or few-branched above, remotely few-leaved. Lower petioles 10 - 25 cm long, glabrous to somewhat pubescent, strongly sheathed at base; cauline petioles reduced, upper very short. Leaf blades somewhat reniform, 3 - 10 cm across, glabrous or nearly so above, with few to many stiff hairs along margin and the veins beneath, 5- to 7-fid for up to half their length; segments broadly cuneate-obovate, mostly bifid, then coarsely toothed with broad entire or dentate teeth with mucronate tips; middle cauline leaves more deeply divided with entire or 3-toothed segments. Inflorescences consisting of 1 to few, rather densely several-flowered racemes; lower bracts leafy, trifid, 2 - 4 cm long; upper bracts linear, entire, 6 - 10 mm long; pedicels divergent, 5 - 20 mm long, strigose; bracteoles subulate, placed near the base or middle of pedicels. Sepals bright blue with a somewhat subterminal spot, strigose to subglabrous; upper sepal ovate, 10 - 14 x 5 - 7 mm; spur subconic, obtuse, 7 - 12 x 3 - 4 mm; lateral sepals elliptie-obovate, truncate- rounded at apex, 13 - 16 x 7 - 9 mm; lower sepals narrowly obovate, 11 - 13 x 5 - 7 mm. Upper petals slightly oblique, obtusely bilobed at apex, ca 10 mm long, glabrous; spur ca 7 mm long; lower petals rounded to oblong, bilobed up to base, ca 7 x 5 mm, short-ciliate and strigulose; claw ca 5 mm long. Stamens 6 - 7 mm long, ciliate; anthers bluish, rounded, less than 1 mm long. Follicles strigulose or glabrous, divergent, ca 1 cm long; seeds with papillose scaly covering or rugulose and without scaly covering.



KEY TO THE VARIETIES


1a. Plants with bright yellowish tomentum; spur 10 - 12 mm long; follicles glabrous; seeds rugulose without scaly covering 16.1. ghaticum
b. Plants with pale yellowish tomentum; spur 7 - 9 mm long; follicles strigulose; seeds with papillose scaly covering 16.2. malabaricum


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