You call this plant larkspur because of one small part at the back of each flower. Look at the back of a single bloom. You will see a long, thin spur that points backward, a lot like the claw of a small bird. The rest of the flower can fool you, but the spur never does. That backward spur is the whole larkspur name origin. The larkspur name meaning stays close to that idea, since the word points right at the spur you can spot.
The name points straight at a bird. A lark has a long claw, or spur, on the back of each foot. This flower grows a spur that holds nectar, tucked behind the petals where you might miss it at first. You can see that the nectar spur has the same long, curved shape as a lark's back claw. Early gardeners saw the match and named the plant for that link. The word has stayed in use for hundreds of years.
That spur does more than decorate the flower. It stores a pool of nectar deep inside, out of reach of most short insects. Long-tongued bumblebees push in to sip the sweet part and pollinate the bloom as they feed. That means the shape that named the plant also helps the garden grow. Once you know the spur, you spot it on every larkspur in the bed. The tail always trails from the back of the flower, never the front.
Larkspur, the common name
- The root: English gardeners named the plant for the spur behind each bloom, which looks like the long back claw of a lark.
- Plain sense: Lark plus spur gives you larkspur, a name that just says what you can see.
Lark's heel and knight's spur
- Old books: Older English writers called the same flower lark's heel or lark's claw.
- Another name: Knight's spur turns up too, since the shape also brings to mind the spur on a riding boot.
Delphinium, the Latin name
- Greek root: The genus name Delphinium comes from delphis, the Greek word for dolphin.
- Why a dolphin: The closed flower bud has a curved shape that reminded old botanists of a dolphin, so the two names point at different parts of the plant.
So the flower carries two names from two ideas. Larkspur describes the spur you can see on the open bloom. Delphinium, the science name, describes the bud before it opens. The two words just look at the flower from two angles. I always point new gardeners to that split, because it clears up a lot of confusion. The larkspur name origin lives in the English word, while the Latin name tells a different story. Both are correct, and both describe the same plant in your bed.
You will meet the name on more than one plant. True perennials in the Delphinium group come back each year and stand tall. The yearly type, sold as annual larkspur, grows fast and fades by late summer. Gardeners use the word larkspur for both, since both wear that same back spur. That is why a seed rack can hold two very different plants under one label. The name follows the shape, not the life span. When you see the spur, you can use the name with a clear mind.
To be sure you have a larkspur, hunt for that single spur trailing behind each flower. No other cottage bloom in the bed wears the same tail. I recommend you check the spur before you look at the color or the leaves. Some old growers still call this bloom the lark's heel flower, and that plain name hands you the clue. Look for the heel, that little spur, and you have your answer. So the larkspur name origin is plain: a bird's claw, matched by a flower.
Read the full article: Larkspur Flower: Meaning, Growing, and Safety
