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WILDFLOWER HOME PAGE SEARCH BY PLANT NAME BLUE/PURPLE FLOWERS CONTACT US
| In hot dry areas, some
species of Lupine may be sparse, short, and have few flowers; in
moist woods other Lupine become luxuriously bushy, tall, with numerous
flowers. Lupines have a long flowering
period and they are one of the most eye-catching flowering plants in the
Four Corners area. (They also provide magnificent displays in many other
areas, e.g., the Blue Bonnets of Texas and the Bush Lupine of the
California coast). In the Four Corners, look for some Lupines such as L. caudatus flowering in
March and April and others such as L. argenteus flowering
into September. All of the Four Corners Lupines have numerous (often dozens of)
blue/purple, five-part flowers making up long (often numerous) racemes.
Because they hybridize, exact species identification of Lupines is often exceedingly difficult: Intermountain Flora states, "The taxonomy of the small-flowered perennial lupines is notoriously difficult. No sexual incompatibilities interfere with free genesis of fertile hybrids which blur the already precarious distinctions...." Utah flora expert Stanley Welsh says, "The genus [Lupinus] is notoriously difficult because of lack of clear diagnostic features." Linnaeus named this genus in 1753. "Lupinus" (Latin for "Wolf") was so named because of the erroneous belief that the species degraded land. |
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Lupinus argenteus
(Lupine) Fabaceae (Pea Family) Foothills, montane,
subalpine. Meadows, openings. Summer. Lupinus argenteus tolerates dry sunny areas and moist meadows and roadsides. It is highly variable in its stature, growing from only 8 inches to 40 inches tall. The plants at the top of this page are three feet tall and wide. Leaves are broad on long petioles and flower clusters usually begin above the leaves. Cronquist in Intermountain Flora lists dozens of synonyms for Lupinus argenteus and recounts the great difficulty in establishing its heritage, present distribution, and exact identification. "Argenteus" is Latin for "silvery". Meriwether Lewis collected the first specimen of this plant "on the banks of the Kooskoosky [now Clearwater] River" in Montana probably in 1806. (Quotation from Intermountain Flora.) Frederick Pursh named the plant in 1814. |
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Lupinus argenteus (Lupine) Fabaceae (Pea Family) Foothills, montane,
subalpine. Meadows, openings. Summer. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Lupinus argenteus |
WILDFLOWER HOME PAGE SEARCH BY PLANT NAME BLUE/PURPLE FLOWERS CONTACT US
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