Common Name: BUTTERCUP FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, woody vine [shrub], occasionally aquatic. Leaf: generally basal and cauline, alternate or opposite, simple or compound; petioles at base generally flat, occasionally sheathing or stipule-like. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; sepals 3--6(20), free, early-deciduous or withering in fruit, generally green; petals 0--many, generally free; stamens generally 5--many, staminodes generally 0; pistils 1--many, ovary superior, chamber 1, style 0--1, generally +- persistent as beak, ovules 1--many. Fruit: achene, follicle, berry, +- utricle in Trautvetteria, in aggregate or not, 1--many-seeded.
Genera In Family: +- 60 genera, 1700 species: worldwide, especially northern temperate, tropical mountains; many ornamental (Adonis, Aquilegia, Clematis, Consolida, Delphinium, Helleborus, Nigella). Toxicity: some highly TOXIC (Aconitum, Actaea, Delphinium, Ranunculus). Note: Taxa of Isopyrum in TJM (1993) moved to Enemion; Kumlienia moved to Ranunculus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Dieter H. Wilken, family description, key to genera
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: LARKSPUR
Habit: Perennial herb; root generally < 10 cm, +- fibrous or fleshy; rootstock buds in life generally obscure (0 or obscure on herbarium specimens). Stem: erect, generally 1, generally unbranched; base generally +- as wide as, generally firmly attached to root, generally +- red or purple. Leaf: simple, basal and cauline, petioled; blades generally palmately lobed, deep lobes generally 3--5, generally < 6 mm wide, generally also lobed; cauline proximal generally dry, generally 0 in flower, distal merging into bracts. Inflorescence: raceme or +- branched, terminal; flowers generally 10--25; pedicels generally +- spreading. Flower: bilateral; sepals 5, petal-like, generally spreading, generally +- dark blue, uppermost spurred; petals 4, << sepals, upper 2 with nectar-secreting spurs enclosed in uppermost sepal, lower 2 clawed, with blades (limbs) generally 4--8 mm, 2-lobed, generally +- perpendicular to claws, generally colored like sepals, generally obviously hairy especially on lobes proximally, inner and outer lobes of each blade generally equally hairy; pistils 3(5). Fruit: follicles 3(5), erect, length generally 2.5--4 × width. Seed: generally winged in youth, collar inflated at widest end or generally not, dark brown to black, generally appearing white; coat cell margins generally straight.
Etymology: (Latin: dolphin, from bud shape) Toxicity: Most species highly TOXIC, attractive to, killing many cattle, fewer horses, sheep. Note: Hybrids common, especially in disturbed places. Root length is of coarse parts only.
eFlora Treatment Author: Jason A. Koontz & Michael J. Warnock
Unabridged Reference: Lewis & Epling 1954 Brittonia 8:1--22

Habit: Root occasionally > 10 cm. Stem: 15--80(110) cm, base generally curly-puberulent. Leaf: generally curly-puberulent; lobes 5--27, generally < 6 mm wide. Inflorescence: pedicels +- ascending, 5--68 mm, 8--50 mm apart, generally puberulent; flowers 3--60. Flower: sepals reflexed or spreading, lateral 9--25 mm, spur 8--21 mm; lower petal blades 3--10 mm. Fruit: 10--19 mm. Seed: +- bumpy, winged.