The following was sent via email: Hello, I am new to the plant forum and not comfortable with how it works just yet as I have not had time to spend with it, but hopefully you can identify this plant for me. It came up in my flower bed last summer and I saved seeds from it and wanted to plant them this year. Thank you so much, Diane
Thank you. With three of you all saying that it is larkspur, can't argue with that! :) Someone had told me that it was a flax, but after looking up the photos of blue flax, it was not the same, so will label it larkspur. It has already stated coming back up from seed that fell from last year's single plant. I had saved some seeds also, they are small black seeds in a small 'pod'. It is such a beautiful color and was so easy to care for, it will be a keeper. I live in Southwest Arkansas where the summer heat can be stressful on plants. This plant seem to perfer cooler temps because it did its best performance in late spring and early summer. Thanks again for the identification. Diane
Photo is pretty out of focus. Larkspur (delphinium) has a spur, a thin projection in back of the petals(tepals or petal-like sepals). The actual petals are the small floral parts in the center of the larger tepals. See this web page for a photo of larspur with the spur. If flax, the actual flaxseed (linseed) oil come from the oil from the seeds. They are a distinctive sphere, oily in appearance, divided into 5 parts like orange slices. The flowers, at least in the ones I see, are rotate (flat petals coming from the center like a wheel{couldn't resist putting in one of my own below :)}), and at least the variety that grows here has an upright growth pattern with the flowers along each stalk, many stalks arising from a center point at ground level. If it doesn't look like either of the above then I suppose the thing to do is to plant the seeds and try for clearer picture this year. :) The great thing about plants is that you can return to them the following year, even in the wild, and for the most part expect to see the same plant growing in the same place. As an aside, my Mother used to save at least one larkspur as they reminded her of her childhood as they grew wild where she grew up. I then followed the practice in her memory and only noticed in later years that it was frequented by hummingbirds. Harry
