Species
+

Delphinium elatum L.

živokost vysokaja, Alpine Delphinium, Alpine Larkspur, Candle larkspur

Climate known 82 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Delphinium elatum is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, known by the common names alpine delphinium, bee larkspur, or candle larkspur. It is native to temperate Asia and Europe, it is an erect herbaceous perennial growing to 1.8 m (5.9 ft), with deeply divided leaves. It produces spikes of blue or purple flowers in summer.

Text from Wikipedia, “Delphinium elatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Delphinium

Delphinium is a genus of about 300 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native throughout the Northern Hemisphere and also on the high mountains of tropical Africa. The genus was erected by Carl Linnaeus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Delphinium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland +21
Wild records
1339 in range· 1042 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
786mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 89 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 786 mm a year, wettest July at 89 mm, driest February at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -27.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Delphiniastrum elatum (L.) Spach, 1838; Delphinium alopecuroides R.Hogg; Delphinium amoenum Bernh.; Delphinium amoenum Bernh. ex Steud.; Delphinium anomalum Spreng. ex Steud. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (599 mm of 786 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 26.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 786 mm a year, wettest July at 89 mm, driest February at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

786 mm a year at the habitat, 599 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 89 mm, driest February at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 504 mm to 1716 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 1, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -27.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -27.5 °C, the absolute minimum -39.8 °C, about 215 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -13.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -24.0 °C to 0.0 °C), warmest day 21.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -27.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -14 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 786 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 960 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -39.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost23.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-39.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 5–36RH 58–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 960 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-6 / -16–6-5 / -13–7-0 / -7–117 / -0–1415 / 6–1819 / 12–2222 / 15–2420 / 14–2314 / 8–207 / 1–15-1 / -9–10-5 / -14–7
Night °C-14 / -24–0-13 / -22–0-9 / -16–3-3 / -10–54 / -3–910 / 2–1213 / 6–1511 / 5–145 / 0–11-0 / -7–8-8 / -16–4-12 / -22–1
Rain mm50 / 23–11840 / 16–10345 / 19–12352 / 29–12670 / 42–16385 / 56–18989 / 61–20986 / 57–20073 / 48–15373 / 39–14363 / 34–13260 / 29–138
DLI6 / 1–1112 / 5–1720 / 14–2729 / 25–3534 / 32–4036 / 33–4035 / 31–3829 / 21–3421 / 12–2613 / 6–187 / 2–115 / 1–9
RH %67 / 57–7565 / 58–7162 / 57–6659 / 55–6358 / 53–6459 / 56–6460 / 57–6461 / 58–6462 / 58–6663 / 59–6867 / 59–7168 / 58–75

Each figure is the median across the 960 grid cells holding the 1153 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 479:4181 (66.025, 29.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -39.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -27.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 960 distinct grid cells holding the 1153 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 479:4181 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 66.00_29.375, lapse-corrected +12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 272 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Switzerland, France, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Xinjiang, Mongolia· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Baltic States, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Wisconsin
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker46.299, 7.212 · in the densest population, 346 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1339 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1042 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 334 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 186 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1339 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Delphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatumDelphinium elatum

Photographs: (c) Ульяна Лалак, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Yeskendir Satekov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Bob, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Сергей Крыленко, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Oleg Kosterin, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Delphinium elatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Inhibitory Effects of Diterpenoid Alkaloids on the Growth of A172 Human Malignant Cells
Koji Wada, Masaharu Hazawa, Kenji Takahashi, Takao Mori (2007) · Journal of Natural Products
New alkaloids from delphinium elatum L.
S. William Pelletier, Samir A. Ross, Palaniappan Kulanthaivel (1989) · Tetrahedron
The lack of control of water loss in micropropagated plants is not related to poor cuticle development
Jorge M. Santamaría, Gerhard Kerstiens (1994) · Physiologia Plantarum
42. The alkaloids of the seeds of Delphinium elatum, L
John Augustus Goodson (1943) · Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed)
Six new norditerpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium elatum
Koji Wada, Ryota Chiba, Rina Kanazawa, Kei Matsuoka (2015) · Phytochemistry Letters
Four diterpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium elatum
Koji Wada, Takako Yamamoto, Hideo Bando, Norio Kawahara (1992) · Phytochemistry
Multitactic Preplant Soil Fumigation with Allyl Isothiocyanate in Cut Flowers and Strawberry
M. Hoffmann, Husein A. Ajwa, B. B. Westerdahl, S. T. Koike (2020) · HortTechnology
Two New Norditerpenoid Alkaloids from Delphinium elatum var. "Black Night"
Jong Cheol Park, Haridutt K. Desai, S. William Pelletier (1995) · Journal of Natural Products
Four new C 19 -diterpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium elatum
Hiroshi Yamashita, M Katoh, Akane Kokubun, Ayano Uchimura (2018) · Phytochemistry Letters
Four new diterpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium elatum
Koji Wada, Erika Asakawa, Yoshie Tosho, Nakata Ayako (2016) · Phytochemistry Letters

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Delphinium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 105 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.