General:
Annual herb from a slender taproot; stems erect, 30-80 cm tall, smooth to sparsely fine-hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, 5 to 20 or more, semi-circular in outline, 1-5 cm wide, 12- to 60-times palmately dissected into linear segments less than 1.5 mm wide, entire; basal and lower stem leaves long-stalked, middle and upper leaves unstalked or nearly so, smooth to minutely-hairy.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a simple or branched, 6 to 30-flowered, terminal raceme, the flowers bilaterally symmetric; lower bracts somewhat leaf-like, the upper simple and linear; flower stalks ascending to spreading, 1-3 cm long, somewhat minutely-hairy; petals 2, blue to purple, rarely pink or white, united to form a corolla with ascending bifid lobe, two round lateral lobes, and a hollow, nectar-bearing spur, the lateral lobes 3-6 mm long, the terminal lobes 5-8 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, cleft 0.2-1 mm; sepals 5, same colour as petals, or darker, nearly smooth, the lower two 8-18 mm long, 4-8 mm wide, the lateral two, 8-18 mm long, 6-14 mm wide, the upper one spurred, the spur 12-20 mm long.

Fruits:
Follicles, 12-25 mm long, minutely fine-hairy; seeds brown, with many transverse baffles.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Consolida ambigua (L.) P.W. Ball & Heywood
Delphinium ajacis L.
Delphinium ambiguum L.