Stems 90-180(-250) cm; base usually green, glabrous. Leaves cauline, 12-20, absent from proximal 1/5 of stem at anthesis; petiole 3-13 cm. Leaf blade round to pentagonal, 5-10 × 8-18 cm, nearly glabrous; ultimate lobes 5-21, width 4-15 mm. Inflorescences (20-)30-70(-140)-flowered; pedicel 0.5-1.5 cm, puberulent; bracteoles 1-3 mm from flowers, green, linear, 5-8 mm, puberulent. Flowers: sepals (in bud) purple to lavender, fading brownish, puberulent, lateral sepals ± forward pointing, 7-11 × 4-5 mm, spurs straight to gently decurved, ascending 30-45° above horizontal, 7-11 mm; lower petal blades ± covering stamens, 3.5-6 mm, clefts 1-2 mm; hairs mostly centered between base of cleft and junction of blade and claw, white or yellow. Fruits 12-16 mm, 3-4 times longer than wide, puberulent. Seeds wing-margined; seed coat cells elongate, surfaces ± roughened. 2 n = 16.

Flowering summer to early autumn. Meadows in coniferous forest; 2200-3900 m; N.Mex.

Delphinium novomexicanum represents the southern Cordilleran complex in the Sacramento and White mountains.