A Year with Nature by Marty Crump

Author:Marty Crump [Crump, Marty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

July 25

Purple Spikes

Bright purple flowers poke through the forest undergrowth above Silverton, Colorado—a patch of larkspur, 10-inch (25-cm) spikes of regal purple flowers, each with four petal-like sepals and a fifth sepal resembling the long claw on a lark’s toe. Larkspur is also called delphinium, a common name for all species in the genus Delphinium, both wild and cultivated.

All parts of the delphinium plant contain alkaloids, which render them poisonous to humans and livestock. According to Italian lore, after warriors slew a dragon, they wiped their swords on the ground. Poisonous blue delphinium flowers grew from the dragon’s blood. During the first century CE, the Greek physician Dioscorides recommended drinking delphinium seeds in wine to cure scorpion bite, based on the belief that delphinium leaves can be used to paralyze scorpions. Also during the first century CE, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recommended a tincture made from delphinium seeds for topical use to heal wounds and to kill adult lice and nits in the hair. In Transylvania, delphinium was planted to keep witches away from horse stables. In England, it was believed that witches commonly included delphinium in their toxic brews.

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