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Larkspur of the species Delphinium parishii.Photo by Mary Beal.
Dolphin-Flower or
Cavalier's Spur
By MARY BEAL? know it as Larkspur but to the ancient Greeksit was dolphin-like and the generic name,
Del-phinium,
has come down to us from an early Greekherbalist. The Spanish-Californians, with their usual apti-tude for euphonious names, called it
Espuelo del Caballero
which we interpret as Cavalier's Spur. Not many flowersare more intriguing in structure and color.Members of the large, handsome Buttercup (or Crow-foot) family, they claim as close kin the Peony, Anemone,Columbine, Monkshood and Ranunculus, all beloved byhome gardeners and also well represented among thewild flowers. They vary so much in general appearancethat it is a surprise to most amateur botanists to find themclosely related.With all their charm and beauty, many of the Larkspurshave a bad name, especially among cattle raisers, becausethey contain toxic alkaloids which cause heavy losses tocattle on the ranges where those species flourish. Stock-men are advised to regard all Larkspur species with sus-picion.Our native Larkspurs are widespread. You'll find themfrom desert sands to the higher mountain elevations,always making a fine showing with their colorful spires ofexquisitely fashioned blossoms. They are all perennial, theleaves palmately divided into cleft or toothed segments.The flowers are irregular and intricate in design, the 5sepals markedly larger than the petals, the upper onelengthened into a conspicuous hollow spur at the base,outstretched backward. The 4 petals are very small, the2 upper ones with spurs concealed within the calyx-spur,the 2 curved lower ones partly covering the pistils andstamens.Delphinine and other alkaloids extracted from Del-phinium species have medicinal value so their noxiousqualities are not exclusively deadly.The common species of desert areas is Parish's Lark-spur.
Delphinium parishii
This species honors Samuel B. Parish, whose extensivemountain and desert botanizing has enriched our knowl-edge of their flora beyond measure. It is rather stout-stemmed, with smooth hairless herbage, the leaves mostlybasal, an inch or two broad, the palmate lobes deeplycleft into narrow segments. The slender racemes stand afoot or two high, their 7 to 18 blossoms more or lessloosely strung along the upper portion, like fairy wandsbejeweled with posies.These lovely spires often rise above the low shrubs,displaying to good advantage the iridescent glints of theircoloring. The individual flowers measure from one-half tonearly an inch across, the sepals a delicate cerulean orlilac-blue, the shade varying as much as the blue of thesky, often marked on the back with a green spot at the tip.The two upper petals are white or creamy, the lower onesblue and slightly hairy on the back. The numerous stamensare dilated and flattened on the lower
half,
closely encir-cling the ovary, which becomes a many-seeded pod, eachtiny seed enveloped in a loose white papery coat.The Parish Larkspurs do not assemble by the myriadsto spread great sweeps of color over vast spaces but ingroups or singly, here and there they enliven the land-scape with colorful splashes of charm and grace. You'llfind them far and wide, from the western Colorado desert,through the Mojave desert to Inyo county, southernNevada and southern Utah, and Arizona, on sandy mesas,washes and hillsides, from low elevations (500 feet) tomountain ridges of 7500 feet.A few other Larkspurs venture into the desert frombordering mountain ranges, among them Parry's Larkspur.
Delphinium parryi
Resembling Parish's Larkspur but taller, up to two anda half feet, the racemes up to a foot in length, each flowerabout an inch and a half across. The sepals are deep orbright violet-blue or purplish, thinly hairy on the back.The tall spires are often crowded with the vivid blossomsand would take front rank in a beauty contest. It is acommon Southern California species of sandy open ground,mesas, and dry hillsides, ranging into the desert areas ofeastern San Diego county and on to the edge of the Colo-rado desert. Blooms from April to June.
Delphinium scaposum
A foot or two tall, the bronzy-green leaves mostly clus-tered at the base, the segments obovate. The raceme iscomposed of 5 to 12 large flowers almost an inch across,the sepals usually a deep royal-blue, the two upper petalswhitish, the lower ones dark blue or purple. In the GrandCanyon and adjacent regions the flowers are a lighter bluewith touches of violet, brightly iridescent. Dry plains,mesas, and rocky hillsides are favored situations for thisdelightful species, generally between 4000 and 7000 feet,in Arizona, New Mexico and southern Nevada, to belooked for from March to May.
THE DESERT MAGAZINE
 
DESERT CALENDAR
Sept.
2 —
Indian celebration
and
dances
at
Acoma pueblo, Indian"City
in the Sky," 14
miles
off
U.S.
84 in
upper northern
New
Mexico.Sept. 2-5—Santa
Fe's
237th AnnualFiesta, Santa
Fe, New
Mexico.Sept. 2-3-4-5—Nevada State Fair
and
Rodeo, Fallon, Nevada.Sept. 3-4—Third Annual
Gem and
Mineral Show
of the
Junior Rock-hounds
of
Prescott, Arizona;
Ari-
zona Power corporation showroom.Sept. 3-4-5—Annual Homecoming
and
Labor
Day
Celebration, Bishop,California.Sept. 3-4-5—Nevada Rodeo,
"The
West
at Its
Best," Winnemucca,Nevada.Sept. 5—Labor
Day
Rodeo, Williams,Arizona.Sept. 5—Rodeo, Labor
Day,
Benson,Arizona.Sept. 8-9—Second annual Indian Fair,San Carlos, Arizona.Sept. 8-9-10-11—Southwest
New
Mexico State Fair, Silver City,New Mexico.Sept. 8-9-10-11— Antelope ValleyFair
and
Alfalfa festival, Lancaster,California.Sept. 9-10—Annual Peach Days cele-bration, Brigham City, Utah.Sept. 9-10—Tooele County Fair,Tooele, Utah.Sept. 15—Indian races
and
dances,Jicarilla Apache reservation,
New
Mexico.Sept. 16-17-18—Yavapai County Fair,Prescott, Arizona.Sept. 18-25—Utah State Fair, SaltLake City, Utah.Sept. 19—Indian Fiesta
and
dances,Laguna pueblo
on U.S. 66, 48
mileswest
of
Albuquerque,
New
Mexico.Sept. 23-24-25
—
Enlarged NavajoCounty Fair,
17th
annual,
and Jay-
cees Rodeo. Entertainment,
con-
cessions, exhibits, rodeo program.Holbrook, Arizona.Sept. 24-25—Third Annual Rodeo,Barstow Rodeo
and
Riding club,Barstow, California.Sept. 24-25—Calico Cavalcade,
a his-
torical pageant
to be
presented
in
Mule canyon
(a
Centennial cele-bration). Same date
as
BarstowRodeo,
at
Barstow, California.Sept. 25—New Mexico State Fairopens
for
8-day
run,
Albuquerque,New Mexico.Sept. 29-30—Indian rituals
and
dancesat Taos pueblo
on U.S. 64, New
Mexico.
Volume
12
SEPTEMBER,
1949
Number
11
COVERBOTANYCALENDARLETTERSINDUSTRYCLOSE-UPSFIELD TRIPDESERT QUIZURANIUMPERSONALITYMININGPOETRYPHOTOGRAPHYARCHEOLOGYPERSONALITYRECREATIONHUMORNEWSCONTESTHOBBYLAPIDARYBOOKSCOMMENT
MONUMENT VALLEY, by Hubert A. Lowman,South Gate, CaliforniaDolphin-Flower or Cavalier's SpurBy MARY BEAL 2September events on the desert 3Comment of Desert readers 4Stone-Splitters of AshforkBy RANDALL HENDERSON 5About those who write for Desert 8Gems on the Devil's HighwayBy HAROLD O. WEIGHT 9Test your desert knowledge 14Grubstake That Paid OffBy MORGAN MONROE 15He Discovered an Ancient WonderlandBy CARMA LEE SMITHSON ..... 20Current news of desert mines
t
. . 23Vaquero, and other poems 24Contest winners in July 25They Left Their Story in the Desert SandsBy A. LaVIELLE LAWBAUGH 26He Died on His River 30We Look for Pretty RocksBy PAUL MERCER 31Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 32From here and there on the desert 33Prizes to photographers, monthly contest ... 38Gems and minerals 39Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . . 44Reviews of Southwest Literature 45Just Between You and Me, By the Editor ... 46
The Desert Magazine
is
published monthly
by the
Desert Press,
Inc.,
Palm Desert,California. Re-entered
as
second class matter July
17, 1948, at the
post office
at
Palm Desert,California, under
the Act of
March
3, 1879.
Title registered
No.
358865
in U. S.
Patent Office,and contents copyrighted
1949 by the
Desert Press,
Inc.
Permission
to
reproduce contentsmust
be
secured from
the
editor
in
writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor
AL
HAWORTH, Associate EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation ManagerUnsolicited manuscripts
and
photographs submitted cannot
be
returned
or
acknowledgedunless full return postage
is
enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes
no
responsibility
for
damage
or
loss
of
manuscripts
or
photographs although
due
care will
be
exercised.
Sub-
scribers should send notice
of
change
of
address
by the
first
of the
month preceding Issue.SUBSCRIPTION RATESOne Year $3.50
Two
Years $6.00Canadian Subscriptions
25c
Extra, Foreign
50c
ExtraSubscription
to
Army Personnel Outside
U. S. A.
Must
Be
Mailed
in
Conformity With
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O. D.
Order
No.
19687
Address
Correspondence
to
Deaert Magazine, Palm Desert,
California
SEPTEMBER,
1949
of 00

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