I havent been able to identify this plant, and the very knowledgeable people I was with at the time also didnt know what it was. We came across it at about 4000ft elevation in the Hat Creek area between Lillooet and Cache Creek.
Was this one plant or were there others like it? Offhand, I'd say it's a variant of Delphinium nuttallianum that lacks petals (and it appears the petal tissue was instead expressed as additional stamens). I've attached an image of Delphinium lineapetalum pointing out the sepals and petals (as an aside, some believe Delphinium lineapetalum to be a subspecies of Delphinium nuttallianum -- note the exposed stamens (which also occurs more or less in D. nuttallianum)). Here's a variant of D. nuttallianum in a different direction -- where the stamens have been expressed as petals. I'd be very interested to hear (perhaps via private message) where you found the plant (if many, do you have GPS coordinates?) and what else you saw along Hat Creek Road -- I will be in that area this weekend.
Fantastic. The 'stamens-as-petals' variant is impressive. Fascinating stuff. Thanks very much for your help.
