Delphinium sapellonis

Stems (50-)100-180(-220) cm; base sometimes reddish, glabrous sometimes glaucous. Leaves cauline, 10-20, absent from proximal 1/5 of stem at anthesis; petiole 5-12 cm. Leaf blade round to pentagonal, 6-10 × 8-16 cm, nearly glabrous; ultimate lobes 5-15, width 5-25 mm. Inflorescences (12-)30-80(-120)-flowered; pedicel 0.5-2 cm, glandular-puberulent; bracteoles 3-5 mm from flowers, green to purple, linear, 5-8 mm, glandular-puberulent. Flowers: sepals (in bud) yellowish or brownish purple, becoming browner or yellower with age, glandular-puberulent, lateral sepals forward pointing, 8-12 × 3-5 mm, spurs straight, ascending 20-45° above horizontal, 8-11 mm; lower petal blades slightly elevated, ± exposing stamens, 2.5-5 mm, clefts 1-2 mm; hairs centered, mostly above base of cleft, yellow. Fruits 12-18 mm, 3-4 times longer than wide, puberulent. Seeds wing-margined; seed coat cells elongate, surfaces smooth.

Flowering summer. Subalpine meadows and open coniferous forest; 2600-3500 m; N.Mex.

Delphinium sapellonis hybridizes with D . barbeyi and D . robustum . It replaces D . robustum and represents the southern Cordilleran complex at higher elevations of the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains east of Santa Fe. It is not known elsewhere.