Delphinium hesperium

Foothill larkspur

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Foothill larkspur is a California native perennial found in foothill and mountain regions in rocky or grassy habitats at elevations of 300 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces deep blue to purple flowers with distinctive petal shapes, the lower petals notably hairier on their inner lobes. Growing with erect stems 40 to 80 centimeters tall and a base that is prominently ridged, it develops an upright, open structure. Its leaves are deeply divided with 3 to 14 lobes, appearing somewhat glabrous on the upper surface while softly puberulent underneath with prominent veining. The mature fruit develops 8 to 18 millimeters long, containing smooth seeds with delicate wings.

California counties: Sutter, Napa, Lake, Merced, Butte, Humboldt, Santa Cruz, Solano, Alameda, Yolo, Sonoma, Marin, Contra Costa, Fresno, Mendocino, Ventura, Tulare, San Mateo, Madera, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Benito, Siskiyou, San Luis Obispo, Colusa, Stanislaus, Trinity, Monterey, Yuba, Tehama, Plumas, Sacramento, Calaveras, Riverside, Shasta, Placer, Mariposa, El Dorado

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.