WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Dense clusters of erect leafy stems 7–36-inches tall are covered with silvery hairs and tipped with spike-like clusters of purple to blue, occasionally white, pea-like flowers. Note the flower has a swollen tubular base with a rounded, spur-like tip. The yellow spot on fresh flowers attracts bees, then when pollinated turns purple to signal the insects that no more nectar is present. Lupines have distinctive leaves with radiating leaflets from a central point (palmate).

FLOWERS: April–May. Slender clusters (racemes) 2–9 1/2-inches tall (5–24 cm) with 15+ flowers on short stalks; flowers bilaterally symmetrical with an upper banner petal with a central white-yellow spot, 2 side wings, and a keel of 2 united petals. The silky-hairy base (calyx) is noticeably swollen on the top with a rounded tip. Fruit is a densely hairy pod 3/4–1 3/8-inches (2–3.5 cm) long with 2-6 seeds.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Palmately compound on 5/8–3 1/8-inch (1.5–8 cm) long stems (petioles) with 6–9 radiating leaflets, each 3/4–2 3/4-inches (2–7 cm) long, hairy to hairless on top, hairy below; leaflet blades folded or flat.

HABITAT: Dry to moist sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa, spruce-fir-aspen forests, subalpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 6,300–10,800 feet.

RANGE: Widespread, common, Rocky Mountains and west.

SIMILAR SPECIES: With widely varying characteristics, this complex species has been divided into 11 intergrading varieties in NM. Another tall, leafy perennial, Spurred Lupine, L. caudatus, in much the same range, also has a swollen calyx tube  at the base of the flower, and pods with 4–6 seeds The Sierra Blanca Lupine, L. sierrae-blancae, in the White and Sacramento mountains, reaches 5-feet tall.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of NM at mid-high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Union, Valencia.