Delphinium is a genus of about 250 species of annual, biennial or perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, that are native in the areas of Northern Hemisphere and also on the high mountains of tropical Africa. The common name of the plant is Larkspur.

The leaves are deeply lobed with 4 to 8 toothed, pointed lobes. The flower has five petals which grow to form a hollow flower with a spur at its end, from which the plant derives its name. Despite its toxicity, Delphinium plants are used as food by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Dot Moth and Small Angle Shades.

Many delphinium species are cultivated as garden plants, with several cultivars having been selected for their denser and more prominent flowers. All parts of the plant contain an alkaloid delphinine and are very poisonous, causing vomiting when eaten, and death in large quantities of the alkaloid. In small quantities of the alkaloid extract, the plant are being used in herbal medicine.A minute dose of it is used against asthma and dropsy. Blue ink is produced by mixing the juice of the flower with alum. The plant in popular medicine used against eye-diseases. Superstitiously it was used to wars of witches in the state of Transylvannia .The tall larkspur, is a threat for cattle poisoning on rangelands in the western United States which is why rangers in those areas will delay moving cattle onto such ranges until late summer when the toxicity of the plants is reduced.