Hook.f. & Thomson
Description
Delphinium glaciale is a high-alpine larkspur distributed across the central and eastern Himalaya, with documented occurrences in Nepal, India, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China); GBIF records some 85 collections from this range. It is a plant of the upper alpine and subnival zones, typically encountered between roughly 4000 and 5000 m on open screes, moraines, glacial forelands and stony alpine turf, as reflected by the population photographed near Jaisuli Kund in Nepal at about 4200 m in October. It tolerates a short growing season, intense insolation and prolonged snow cover.
The species is a dwarf, cushion-forming or compactly tufted perennial herb arising from a stout woody rootstock. Stems are short, ascending and densely covered, like the foliage, in spreading whitish to yellowish hairs that lend the plant a shaggy appearance. The leaves are palmately divided into narrow segments, mostly basal or crowded toward the stem base. The inflorescence is few-flowered and condensed; the zygomorphic flowers are deep blue to violet-blue, the posterior sepal prolonged into a stout spur enclosing two nectariferous petals, the whole densely pubescent externally. The fruit is a cluster of erect, hairy follicles releasing small angular seeds.
Within Delphinium the species belongs to the assemblage of dwarf, glandular- or villous-haired Sino-Himalayan high-alpine larkspurs adapted to glacial habitats, a feature echoed in the epithet glaciale. Its compact habit and dense indumentum are classic adaptations to wind exposure and cold. Like most members of the genus it contains diterpenoid alkaloids and is toxic to livestock. No specific conservation assessment has been published; its restriction to remote subnival terrain confers natural protection, though high-altitude warming and habitat shifts may threaten such narrowly zoned alpine specialists.
Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Munz Monograph of Delphinium