Rocket larkspur

Delphinium consolida Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 530. 1753

Stems 2-6(-11) dm, ± puberulent. Leaves 5-28. Leaf blade semicircular, 9-27-lobed, 1-5cm wide, ± puberulent, lobes less than 1.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 6-41-flowered, often more than 3 branches; bracts simple (except lowermost sometimes 3-cleft); pedicel ascending, 1.5-5 cm, ± puberulent; bracteoles 4-15 mm from flower, lance-linear, 1.5-4 mm, ± puberulent. Flowers: sepals dark blue, rarely pink or white, puberulent, lower sepal 9-15 × 4-6 mm, lateral sepals 9-16 × 5-8 mm, spur 12-22 mm; petals blue to yellow with tinge of red, lateral lobes 4-5 mm, terminal lobes 3.5-5 × 2-3 mm, sinus 0.5-1.5 mm. Follicles 8-17 mm, glabrous to pubescent.

Flowering summer. Wheat fields, roadsides, waste places, old homesites; 0-800 m; introduced; Ont.; Ala., D.C., Mo., N.Y., N.C., Pa., Wis.; native to Europe, sw Asia.

Consolida regalis is widely and commonly cultivated. In some areas it was apparently introduced as a contaminant with wheat seed (N. G. Miller 1995) and subsequently became established.