Buttercup Family
Nelson’s Larkspur, Delphinium nelsonii, GREENE
Flowers, ½ inch or more wide, are formed of 5 showy, dark blue, irregularly shaped sepals, enclosing at their base 4 much smaller petals of lighter color. The uppermost sepal extends backward as a slender spur ½ inch or more in length. About a dozen flowers on slender pedicels group around a central erect stem to form a loose raceme which often nods slightly at the top. Plant is 10 to 15 inches tall and bears rather few leaves each sub-divided into linear segments. Grows in foothills zone. Blooms late April to early June.
This small larkspur of the early spring looks much like the single larkspur of an old-fashioned garden. Its favorite location is near the base of a clump of scrub oak where a little snow has drifted in the winter giving that spot a bit of extra water. The intense blue of these flowers contrasts well with the leather brown color of last season’s oak leaves. When spring is farther advanced other taller larkspurs, such as Delphinium geyeri, called poison-weed by the stockmen, make a more spectacular showing on low foothills and plains. All of the larkspurs contain an alkaloid poison which is deadly to cattle and somewhat dangerous to other stock.
Buttercup Family
Snow Buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus, GRAY
Flowers are an inch across, formed of several (3 to 15) broad, overlapping golden petals having the glossy sheen of butter. The sparse leaves are divided into linear lobes. These and the succulent stems grow a few inches tall, breaking out of frosty soil with flower bud ready to open. Grows on alpine and sub-alpine slopes near snow banks. Blooms when snow melts, usually June to early July.
The hardiness of the snow buttercup is its outstanding characteristic. It comes up through the snow because in the high altitude in which it lives its time for fruition is short. It pushes a stout knuckle of stem through the snow crust, attracting the sun’s heat by the dark color of its stem, then the knuckle straightens, lifting the already formed bud into an erect position. The bud opens rapidly and proceeds to spread out in the hole caused by melting. Of the many glossy members of the buttercup family, there are few of so rich a yellow, or which give such an appearance of being all flower with inconsiderable leaf and stem.
Buttercup Family
Globeflower, Trollius laxus, SALISB.
